A Federal judge on Friday issued an order that extends the court’s prohibition on the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing U.S. Treasury Department payment systems.
In a 64-page opinion, Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that “there is a realistic danger that confidential financial information will be disclosed” without the court blocking DOGE’s access to the systems.
She wrote that the Treasury Department’s “rushed and ad hoc process” for granting DOGE access to the payment systems “increased the risk of exposure” of confidential information.
The preliminary injunction Vargas issued on Feb. 21 prohibits anyone affiliated with DOGE or the Treasury DOGE team from accessing Federal payment systems until further notice.
Vargas’ decision comes after the court previously issued a temporary order on Feb. 8 that blocked DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department payment systems – which manage trillions of dollars of payments every year.
The temporary block came after attorneys general from 19 states filed a lawsuit to try and stop DOGE from accessing Treasury Department systems. In the lawsuit, the states claim DOGE has no legal power to access the systems.
The court ordered any DOGE official who had been granted access to the Treasury Department systems since Jan. 20 to “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a post on X on Friday to celebrate Vargas’ ruling.
“We just won a court order stopping DOGE and unauthorized, unelected, and unvetted individuals like Elon Musk from accessing people’s private data and blocking Federal funds,” James said. “We will keep fighting to protect all Americans from this administration’s destruction.”
However, Vargas is giving the Trump administration an opportunity to eventually lift the block. She ordered the Treasury Department to submit a report by March 24 that details whether DOGE employees have been adequately vetted and trained to access the financial systems.
The report must also detail “the mitigation procedures that have been developed to minimize any threats resulting from increased access” by the DOGE team to the payment systems.
