Among the many lawsuits against the Trump/Musk actions is one filed by the AFL/CIO and other labor organizations and unions against the Department of Labor for DOGE access to what should be confidential and private data.
In response, the government attempted to blow off the concerns by stating that DOGE folk are now employed by the DOL, but this is cold comfort when it’s obvious these people have an original allegiance to DOGE/Musk, and only a tenuous at best connection to the requirements of federal employment.
In the reply to the government response, the lawyers for the AFL/CIO highlight the real problem with the continue DOGE access at federal agencies.
Moreover, Defendants’ reassurance that all is well because DOGE1
personnel who have been granted broad access to the Department of Labor’s systems have been detailed to that agency is both cold comfort and legally insufficient. As a consequence of DOGE’s establishment as a free-floating component within the Executive Office of the President, it lacks the requisite authority to detail its personnel to federal agencies and, for the same reason, agencies may not receive those detailees.
Accordingly, the violations causing Plaintiffs irreparable harm, including under the Privacy Act, will persist, absent intervention from the Court.
These faux employees that Musk bullied into each department with Trump’s willing compliance have not undergone the regular reviews, with its checks and balances, for federal employment. They have also not demonstrated a respect for law, particularly the stringent laws that guard the privacy and confidentiality of government systems.
And what harm is it to give DOGE this access?
Many of Plaintiffs’ members will be chilled from reporting legal violations by their employers and prevented from exercising their rights to seek the Department’s protections if they know that records memorializing their complaints may no longer be secure on Department servers (and, indeed, may be made freely available to individuals concurrently serving as executives of companies subject to Department enforcement).
Executives, such as Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, which had over 600 workplace injuries unconvered by a Reuters’ investigation, as reported to OSHA, an organization contained within the Department of Labor.
The response also notes another item of importance: that DOGE has no authority to employ people within the federal government. And federal departments have no authority to accept these people as employees.
Defendants argue that, because DOGE personnel at the Department have been “detailed” from DOGE to the Department, those individuals are functioning as employees of the Department and, accordingly, may lawfully perform Department functions and access Department systems. … But DOGE is not authorized to detail its personnel to the Department, or any federal agency, and the Department was not authorized to accept their services
So the employment of people such as Thomas Shedd, who I have written about previously, is inherently illegal, as is allowing them unlimited access to our data and our data systems.
As was noted in the response, once data has been exposed the damage is done and can’t be undone, “a bell that cannot be unrung.”
We shouldn’t have to sue to stop these people. The President’s first duty is to have a care for the American people. And Congress should be stepping up to prevent such atrocities, but evidently, it’s more concerned about $15 million dollars in condoms for the Taliban per Buddy Carter, my own Republican representative to the House.