{"id":33726,"date":"2025-02-19T05:56:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T05:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/catastrophic-results-union-taxpayer-groups-take-stab-at-doge-in-latest-lawsuit-over-irs-data-access\/"},"modified":"2025-02-19T05:56:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T05:56:53","slug":"catastrophic-results-union-taxpayer-groups-take-stab-at-doge-in-latest-lawsuit-over-irs-data-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/catastrophic-results-union-taxpayer-groups-take-stab-at-doge-in-latest-lawsuit-over-irs-data-access\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Catastrophic results&#8217;: Union, taxpayer groups take stab at DOGE in latest lawsuit over IRS data access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a lawsuit filed on Monday, multiple taxpayer and union groups alleged Elon Musk&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/defense\/spending\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Department of Government Efficiency<\/a> (DOGE) violated multiple laws in its quest to unearth and eliminate wasteful government spending.<\/p>\n<p>The groups claim DOGE launched a &#8220;sweeping campaign to access highly-sensitive information systems&#8221; and violated laws that limit executive power, protect civil servants, and guard citizens&#8217; data held by the government.<\/p>\n<p>The agency, which was created by an executive order earlier this year, remains a temporary organization within the White House and is tasked with optimizing the federal government, streamlining operations, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/defense\/spending\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">slashing spending<\/a> in just 18 months.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/new-resistance-battling-trumps-second-term-through-onslaught-lawsuits-taking-aim-eos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP&#8217;S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Noting recent DOGE action at the Treasury, Labor, Education and Health departments, as well as at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Personnel Management and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/economy\/taxes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Internal Revenue Service (IRS)<\/a>, the suit alleges DOGE&#8217;s access to sensitive information systems &#8220;lacks statutory authority.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, it claims DOGE violated the Tax Reform Act, Privacy Act and Administrative Procedures Act.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The results have already been catastrophic,&#8221; according to the suit.<\/p>\n<p>Without the court&#8217;s intervention, the groups said they were concerned about DOGE having access to sensitive information including social security numbers, individuals&#8217; finances, and bank account information.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also asserted DOGE will have access to confidential business information, tax records and IRS investigations, which &#8220;could include investigations or reports pertaining to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mr. [Elon] Musk&#8217;s<\/a> businesses or those of his competitors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No other business owner on the planet has acces to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,&#8221; lawyers wrote in the suit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/doge-scores-big-court-win-allowed-access-data-3-federal-agencies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>DOGE SCORES BIG COURT WIN, ALLOWED ACCESS DATA ON 3 FEDERAL AGENCIES<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The groups \u2014 the Center for Taxpaper Rights, Main Street Alliance, National Federation of Federal Employees, and Communications Workers of America \u2014 are seeking a temporary restraining order to maintain the status quo until the court has an opportunity to review DOGE and Musk&#8217;s actions.<\/p>\n<p>Following the review, plaintiffs asked the court to declare DOGE&#8217;s access unlawful, halt its use of IRS systems, order that information obtained illegally be deleted, and establish new security protections.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was filed prior to a federal judge&#8217;s ruling on Tuesday to not block DOGE from accessing government data or firing federal employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a request for a temporary restraining order, pointing to the absence of evidence showing the agency&#8217;s access caused &#8220;irreparable harm.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, Chutkan did question what &#8220;appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual,&#8221; referencing Musk.<\/p>\n<p>She also expressed concerns about DOGE&#8217;s accountability to Congress.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/wasteful-dangerous-doges-top-5-most-shocking-revelations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>&#8216;WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS&#8217;: DOGE&#8217;S TOP FIVE MOST SHOCKING REVELATIONS<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last week, more than a dozen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/democratic-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democratic state attorneys<\/a> general sued to temporarily restrict DOGE&#8217;s access to federal data about government employees, citing concerns about Musk&#8217;s access and power.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is no greater threat to democracy than the accumulation of state power in the hands of a single, unelected individual,&#8221; according to the lawsuit, filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,\u00a0Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington also signed onto the suit.<\/p>\n<p><i>Fox News Digital&#8217;s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a lawsuit filed on Monday, multiple taxpayer and union groups alleged Elon Musk&#8217;s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) violated multiple laws in its quest to unearth and eliminate wasteful government spending. The groups claim DOGE launched a &#8220;sweeping campaign to access highly-sensitive information systems&#8221; and violated laws that limit executive power, protect civil servants, &#8230; <a title=\"&#8216;Catastrophic results&#8217;: Union, taxpayer groups take stab at DOGE in latest lawsuit over IRS data access\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/catastrophic-results-union-taxpayer-groups-take-stab-at-doge-in-latest-lawsuit-over-irs-data-access\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about &#8216;Catastrophic results&#8217;: Union, taxpayer groups take stab at DOGE in latest lawsuit over IRS data access\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}