Extraordinary Intervention

Today the Court grants "emergency" relief that allows the Social Security Administration (SSA) to hand DOGE staffers the highly sensitive data of millions of Americans.  The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now -- before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE's access is lawful.  So it asks this Court to stay a lower court's decision to place temporary and qualified limits on DOGE's data access while litigation challenging DOGE's authority to access the data is pending.  But the Government fails to substantiate its stay request by showing that it or the public will suffer irreparable harm absent this Court's intervention.  In essence, the “urgency” underlying the Government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes.

That sentiment has traditionally been insufficient to justify the kind of extraordinary intervention the Government seeks.  But, once again, this Court dons its emergency-responder gear, rushes to the scene, and uses its equitable power to fan the flames rather than extinguish them.

-- Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sotomayor, dissenting in Social Security Administration v AFSCME, on application for stay, in which the majority, on the emergency docket, granted a stay of a lower court ruling that limited DOGE access to Social Security data as this case makes it way through litigation (6 June 2025)