The Supreme Court on Friday handed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) two major victories in its expanding legal battle over drastic efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.

In two separate emergency rulings issued simultaneously, the court lifted a block on DOGE personnel accessing sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) systems and wiped a ruling forcing DOGE to turn over discovery in a records lawsuit.

Both rulings appeared to be along the Supreme Court’s ideological lines, with the court’s three Democratic-appointed justices publicly dissenting.

The decisions come as President Trump’s relationship with billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, the face of DOGE for months, publicly imploded Thursday. His administration continues to defend DOGE’s work in the courts.

Social Security

In the Social Security case, the justices lifted a Maryland-based federal judge’s order blocking DOGE from snooping around the SSA’s systems that contain personally identifiable information, including Social Security numbers, medical and mental health records, bank data, and earnings history.

The majority did not explain the reasoning, only saying that the “SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency record” under the present circumstances.

In dissent, Justice........

© The Hill