General Discussion

A Maryland federal judge pushed back on speculation that her court order restricting Social Security Administration data access for Elon Musk and his cost-cutting team may threaten benefit payments by forcing much of the agency’s operations to shut down.

In a letter released Friday, US District Judge Ellen Hollander said the order she issued Thursday didn’t apply to nearly all of the agency’s employees, only to Musk and and affiliates of his Department of Government Efficiency. “Any suggestion that the order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect,” the judge said.

Hollander’s 14-day temporary restraining order prompted the Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek to say that the judge’s references to “DOGE affiliates” could apply to any agency employee and that he would follow Hollander’s order “exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems.”

In her letter Friday, Hollander said Dudek’s claims were “inaccurate.” A DOGE “affiliate” was “a person working on or implementing the DOGE agenda,” she said. “Employees of SSA who are not involved with the DOGE Team or in the work of the DOGE Team are not subject to the order,” she wrote.