Washington DC - US district judge Ellen Hollander on Thursday issued a temporary block on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being able to access personal data at the Social Security Administration (SSA).

"The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion," said Hollander in a legal ruling.

The ruling was handed down in response to a lawsuit brought forward in February by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and the American Federation of Teachers.

DOGE "has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack," the ruling read.

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Hollander said that suspicion of conspiracy does not automatically justify giving Elon Musk access to the private data of millions of US residents.

Reminiscent of recent lawsuits that have seen staffers reinstated after being fired by DOGE, Hollander stressed that the department never "identified or articulated even a single reason" for accessing SSA record systems.

These systems include the social security numbers, banking information, identities, and medical records of millions of people, dating back decades.

As a result of the order, DOGE staffers including Elon Musk are legally obliged to delete and disgorge all personal data in their possession or under their control if it was obtained from an SSA system.

They are also barred from installing software on any SSA devices or IT systems and must remove anything that has already been installed. SSA computer or software code must also be left alone.

"The government simply repeats its incantation of a need to modernize the system and uncover fraud," Hollander wrote in his scathing remarks. "Its method of doing so is tantamount to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer."