Greenbelt, Md. (AP) -A judge agreed to prevent two federal authorities on Monday from the disclosure of records with sensitive personal information to representatives of the billionaire -Trump consultant Elon Musk Department of Government Efficiency.
The US district judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, decided that the Ministry of Education and the Office for Personnel Administration would probably have violated the data protection law by disclosing people’s personal data without consent to Doge.
Boardman issued a momentary injunction, requested by lawyers for unions and groups, which represented current and former federal employees.
The judge, who heard arguments on the application last week, said her command prevented President Donald Trump, a Republican, “influenced the government’s guidelines”.
“It prevents the plaintiff’s sensitive personal information from the sensitive personal information on Doge partners who do not have to know the information in the current recording to perform their tasks,” she wrote.
The personal information that representatives of Doge was accessed includes bank account numbers, social security numbers, birth data and addresses. Doge could exploit the information to “create a comprehensive image of family, professional or financial matters of the plaintiffs,” said the judge.
“This persistent, non -authorized disclosure of the sensitive personal information of the plaintiffs on Doge Affiliates is irreparable that money damage cannot correct,” wrote Boardman, who was nominated by Trump’s predecessor President Joe Biden, a democrat.
The plaintiffs of the lawsuit include the American Federation of Teachers, the National Active and Rental Federal Employees Association and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
AFT President Randi Weingarten said that Boardman’s decision is (*2*) .
“We have made this case maintain people’s privacy, because when people provide their financial and other personal information to the federal government – namely the financial support for their children for college or to receive a student loan – expect this data to be protected And for the reasons it was intended, not appropriated for other funds, ”said Weingarten in an explanation.
Musk has led Trump’s efforts to overhaul and reduce the federal government. At the weekend, he demanded that federal employees explain their achievements or the risk of being released and asked the lawyers for the workers to say in a lawsuit in California on Monday that he had violated the law.
Trump defended Musk’s actions as necessary to eradicate fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government.
Doge reduced the training department contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
On Saturday, the spokesman for the department said Madison Biedermann that he had canceled a national test that measures the reading and mathematics skills of 17-year-olds.
The long-term trend assessment introduced in the 1970s is administered every four years for students aged 9, 13 and 17 years. The test for 17-year-olds has not been offered since 2012 due to budget restrictions. The removal will affect the collection of long -term data on the progress of students whose education has been disrupted by pandemic.
The tests are part of the national assessment of the progress of education. Biedermann said that the cuts do not influence the main ratings of the fourth, eighth and twelfth grade, which are specified every two years and are referred to as “The Nation’s Mottar”. Biedermann provided no reason for the cuts.
“The agency continues to support NAEP and transparency in relation to measures of the student results,” said Biedermann.
