U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan issued the order shortly after midnight on Friday, following an emergency filing by 19 Democratic attorneys general.
“The conduct of Doge members presents a unique security risk to the States and State residents whose data is held,” according to the original complaint.
Engelmayer, appointed by President Barack Obama, agreed, noting that the states were likely to demonstrate that the new arrangement was illegal.
On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., limited access to this system for two Musk allies, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, who had been embedded with Treasury as “special government employees.” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, appointed by President Bill Clinton, signed the order, which Department of Justice lawyers had previously agreed to on Wednesday.
Engelmayer’s order goes even further, preventing them and many other government employees from using the system until at least February 14. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was instructed to respond by then.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, a Joe Biden appointee, has scheduled a hearing on the matter in New York.
The judge stated that access was restricted to “civil servants with a need for access… who have passed all background checks, security clearances, and information security training” mandated by laws and regulations.
And he directed the prohibited workers to “immediately destroy and all copies of material downloaded.”
A White House spokesman and Musk slammed the decision.
“These frivolous lawsuits are akin to children throwing pasta at the wall to see if it will stick,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told CNN in a statement. “This activist judge has resorted to preventing the Senate-confirmed Secretary of Treasury from performing his duties.” “It is absurd and judicial overreach.”
Musk stated on his X platform that DOGE and long-time career Treasure Department employees “jointly” agreed to payment rules, including a “rational” in the check’s comment field and adhering to a “DO-NOT-PAY list of entities known to be fraudulent or people who are dead or are probable fronts for terrorist organizations or do not match Congressional appropriations must actually be implemented and not ignored.”
He stated that there are $100 billion in entitlement payments to individuals who do not have a Social Security number or even a temporary ID number, and that the Treasury estimates that half of these are fraudulent. “If accurate, this is extremely suspicious,” a user commented.
On Friday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the Trump administration to immediately stop putting at least 2,200 employees of the United States Agency for International Development on administrative leave. District Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by Trump, issued his decision before the agency planned to keep fewer than 300 people as essential personnel as of 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday.
Other judges have intervened to limit Trump’s early efforts on birthright citizenship, a broad spending freeze, a government-wide resignation program, and the relocation of transgender prison inmates.
However, District Judge John Bates of Washington, D.C., appointed by President George W. Bush, has ruled that DOGE representatives will not be barred from accessing Labor Department data for the time being, rejecting an emergency request by labor unions and a think tank.
Esk, one of two people with access to Treasury Department records, resigned following a Wall Street Journal report on his racist social media posts.
One day later, Musk wrote on his platform, X, that “he will be brought back. To err is human; to forgive is divine.
Vice President JD Vance publicly expressed his support for the employee. “Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance told X.
