New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with attorneys general from 18 other states, filed a lawsuit on Friday against President Donald Trump's administration to block Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal data stored at the US Treasury Department, UNN reports, citing NBC News.
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James emphasized in the lawsuit that DOGE's access to the Ministry of Finance's central payment system would reveal sensitive information, including residents' bank account information and social security numbers.
The Coalition argues that granting Musk and DOGE such access is both illegal and unconstitutional, and is seeking an injunction to stop it.
"As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk is no stranger to being told 'no,' but in our country, no one is above the law," James said, arguing that Trump has no authority to share Americans' personal information.
The states that have joined the lawsuit include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, follows a similar case in Washington, D.C., filed by retirees and union members who claimed that DOGE's access to government data violated federal privacy laws. This lawsuit seeks to prevent DOGE from collecting such data and seeks the return of any information already obtained.
Since then, lawyers for the Ministry of Justice have agreed to temporarily restrict DOGE staff access to the data, granting only two special civil servants in the Ministry of Finance limited read-only access until at least February 24, when a judge will rule on a preliminary injunction request.
Musk's actions at the helm of DOGE have drawn sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers. On Tuesday, a group of them staged a protest outside the Treasury Department, portraying Musk as an "unelected billionaire" with unauthorized access to confidential American data.
"We can't let Elon Musk and a small group of people secretly, behind closed doors, take our privacy, take our dollars, take everything we have," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, at the protest.