Can a federal judge or any other legal entity stop DOGE?

[AdamGG]

I posted this in another thread. It seems likely that Musk is acting illegally to seize classified data from federal agencies, including people's tax data and to shutter federal agencies that were created by Congress.

Musk and the people handling/storing the information have had no background checks and signed no confidentiality agreements on how they will handle the information they are seizing.

Most of this seems that it should be illegal on a variety of levels. My question is, since the Democrats don't have the votes in the House or the Senate to pass measures to stop this, what other legal avenues are there? Does anyone know?

Could a federal judge issue a cease and desist order? Could state attorney generals take emergency action on behalf of their constituents whose privacy has been compromised? Could the DC police arrest anyone? I know that the last one is unlikely, but what legal right does Musk et al. have to seize material that they have not been cleared to handle?

In short, does anyone know if there are there any systemic means to halt what is happening? Congress has the power to illegalize it, but the votes aren't there.

[ibegurpard]

1. They can and likely will rule against it

But who's going to enforce that ruling?

[AdamGG]

4. I guess it needs to be in state court

so Trump can't pardon Musk. Find him guilty and when he continues to violate the orders, sentence him.

[Ocelot II]

7. A state court wouldn't have jurisdiction.

Stopping Musk's interference with government processes has to be done by a federal court issuing an injunction. This is a civil matter over which a state court would not have jurisdiction. If he's committed a crime it is also likely to be a federal crime, which would have to be prosecuted by the DoJ (not likely to happen even if it should). There is no way for a state court to get involved in this situation at all.

[drray23]

11. What about his underlings ?

Surely states have laws regarding cyber crimes, privacy laws, financial crime laws and so on. Would not some of that be applicable ?

[Ocelot II]

13. Only if the crimes were committed in that state.

[RJ-MacReady]

14. We can't worry abotu that stuff anymore

Blue states need to take matters into their own hands. Musk needs to be jailed, end of story.

[AdamGG]

16. Couldn't state AG's

File some sort of emergency injunction with federal courts because their state's residents have had their tax data and other personal information seized by unknown individuals with no authorization who haven't agreed to uphold privacy constraints?

Then, DOGE should very quickly be in contempt of federal court and it would end up being appealed, possibly to SCOTUS. SCOTUS could rule in Trump's favor, but possibly not because this is a pretty extreme precedent.

[Irish_Dem]

6. Who will enforce existing laws and new court orders?

The US marshals and DOJ seem to be the security guards for the traitors
and protecting them.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Eloon & DOGE are a public nuisance

[gab13by13]

3. It is worse than you think

Someone put the names of DOGE employees on X. Musk is talking about having the people arrested who revealed the identities of DOGE employees. A US Marshall agrees with Musk.

[AdamGG]

5. That's insane

That the people who are taking possession of millions of public records cannot have their identities revealed to the public and they're supposed to remain anonymous?

It's blatant fascism. That US Marshal must be a trump appointee. No one is outing CIA agents; they're performing roles of public servants, except that they haven't been cleared to be public servants and they're serving maliciously.

[Arazi]

9. It's Ed Martin, a Trumper fanatic and Acting US Attorney for DC

Even though a federal charge would be unlikely to stick on this, he can and will ruin a person’s life pursuing them.

[AdamGG]

8. How about running an ad campaign

explaining this and encouraging people to contact their representatives. Target Republicans in swing districts and run them more broadly to try to impact Trump's approval numbers.

[allegorical oracle]

10. This is a small snip from a piece about Muck and his rummaging sidekicks. Just plucked

This paragraph that adds a bit to the OP inquiry:

Last month, a number of organizations joined as plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging DOGE illegally violates government requirements for transparency, ethics, recordkeeping, and balanced representation.

https://www.latintimes.com/x-user-reveals-names-elon-musks-doge-employees-who-accessed-treasury-payment-system-musk-claims-574485

[Cirsium]

12. No

What is and isn't legal is no longer relevant.

Militant popular resistance is the only option remaining. That, plus judicial, electoral and legislative remedies might work, but in the absence of militant popular resistance, judicial, electoral and legislative remedies will not work.

[AdamGG]

15. The sad thing is, there are 1,500 militants who were just pardoned

Last edited Tue Feb 4, 2025, 06:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Who I imagine would love nothing more than to be fighting our militant resistance in the streets. I think our side needs to go the route of more Gandhi/MLK like protests and they need to be massive. And there needs to be an effective advertizing/messaging campaign to explain how people's privacy has been compromised and how the government is being dismantled by anonymous unaccountable actors.

Public opinion is the only thing that may cause some Republicans to act. We need 5 or 6 in the House and 4 in the Senate.

[Frasier Balzov]

17. Homeland premises security needs to stand down.

That requires individual officers to walk off the job of guarding DOGE.

Once that happens, appropriate wedgies can be administered.

[Jon43140]

18. Civil Suits

I wonder if civil suits could be filed against the DOGE employees that accessed our information. This is no different than any other crime where criminal defendants are sued in civil court. They stole people's personal information and who knows where on the dark web that's headed.