Judge Rules OPM Broke Privacy Law by Opening Federal Workers' Records to DOGE. Reform Has to Keep the Law.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

A federal judge in New York has ruled that the Office of Personnel Management broke federal privacy law when it gave agents of the Department of Government Efficiency access to systems holding records on tens of millions of past, current and aspiring federal workers. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York issued the ruling on Tuesday, Oct. 20, FedScoop reported.

The case was filed in February 2025 by federal workers and their unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees. They argued that OPM granted "unvetted and untrained" DOGE agents broad access to systems containing personal data, Federal News Network reported.

What the judge found

Cote found that OPM violated the Privacy Act and bypassed established cybersecurity practices. "At this point, there is no meaningful dispute concerning the underlying conduct. The defendants barely defend its legality, relying instead on what has happened since to argue that the case is moot and that prospective relief is unnecessary," she wrote, according to Federal News Network.

Government lawyers argued that DOGE agents had "modernization responsibilities" under the executive order that created the group. Cote rejected that defense, writing that "the record also provides no support for a finding that it was the pursuit of a modernization agenda that prompted OPM to grant sweeping and expedited access to a score of DOGE Agents to its systems of records containing PII," meaning personally identifiable information, FedScoop reported. The government's "modernization responsibilities" argument was described by Federal News Network.

Where things stand now

Cote issued a preliminary injunction in June 2025 that has blocked DOGE agents' access since then. OPM told the court it began rescinding permissions after that order, and no DOGE agent has had access to sensitive personnel data since September 2025, according to government filings described by Federal News Network. Only one former DOGE agent remains at OPM, and he cannot access the data.

The judge credited the agency for improving its procedures. "This conclusion does not diminish OPM's admirable efforts during this litigation to strengthen its protocols," she wrote, while adding that the misconduct came from "the failure of particular individuals to abide by the Privacy Act and to honor the safeguards already in place at OPM," Federal News Network reported.

The government argued the case was moot because DOGE has been disbanded. Cote disagreed. "The termination thus narrows, but does not eliminate, the circumstances in which the challenged conduct could recur," she wrote, FedScoop reported. She has not yet decided on a remedy. The plaintiffs want any copies of OPM data that DOGE agents still hold deleted. FedScoop said the White House, OPM and the Justice Department did not respond to its request for comment, and Federal News Network said an OPM spokesperson declined to comment on ongoing litigation.

Opinion: Cutting waste is right, but the records belong to the people

I have no quarrel with the goal DOGE claimed. Taxpayers deserve a lean government, and Washington has wasted money for generations under both parties.

But a good goal does not excuse breaking the law to reach it. The Privacy Act is not red tape. It is a promise Congress made to every citizen whose records the government holds. By the judge's account, the government barely defended the legality of what happened, and the people who broke the rules were individuals who ignored safeguards already on the books. The record on results is not strong either. Federal News Network notes that the Government Accountability Office reported in August that many of DOGE's claimed savings lacked supporting evidence and some were simply incorrect.

Conservatives should care about this as much as anyone. We have warned for decades about a federal government that knows too much about its citizens. That warning does not expire when our side holds power. The same files that were opened carelessly this time could be opened against conservatives next time.

Jesus put it simply: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much" (Luke 16:10). Public servants are stewards, not owners, whether it is a judge who owes the public careful work, as I wrote in Fifth Circuit Removes Judge Over AI Errors in Mississippi DEI Case, or an agency trusted with a federal worker's personal records. Reform government by all means. Do it within the law, and the reform will last.