A federal judge has just stopped the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Social Security data. 

Fox News reports that U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, of Baltimore, Maryland, made the call on Thursday.

It will likely come as no surprise that Hollander is an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

This is one of the reasons why a president's judicial appointments are so important. They can put a stop to the opposition party's efforts.

Background

Trump and DOGE continue to try to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in all sectors of the federal government. The Social Security system is one of their latest targets.

The effort was immediately challenged in the courts by a group of labor unions and retirees. They claimed that DOGE, in accessing the Social Security data, violated privacy laws and, in addition to this, opened the information up to security risks.

The case recently made it before Hollander, who recently held a hearing on the matter. During that hearing, she took Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys to task, repeatedly asking them why DOGE needs access to this information.

Despite the DOJ attorneys' best efforts, they were unable to sway Hollander.

Now, Hollander has released a decision in the matter.

The latest

CBS News reports that in her order, Holland "imposed new restrictions" on DOGE's access to Social Security data.

Hollander, in part, admitted:

The objective to address fraud, waste, mismanagement, and bloat is laudable, and one that the American public presumably applauds and supports. Indeed, the taxpayers have every right to expect their government to make sure that their hard earned money is not squandered.

However, Hollander went on to say, "For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records. This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation."

Accordingly, Hollander granted a preliminary injunction, stopping DOGE from accessing certain Social Security information. The remedy is only temporary. It will be in place while the case continues to be litigated on the merits.

CBS notes that the injunction does no completely stop DOGE in its tracks. It reports, "The injunction does allow DOGE staffers to access data that's been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, if they undergo training and background checks." Nonetheless, this is still a major hindrance for Trump and DOGE, one that will likely slow DOGE down significantly, unless a higher court reverse Hollander's decision.