DOGE employees temporarily barred from financial aid data

Representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency won’t be able to access federal student aid databases until Feb. 17 under a federal court order released Tuesday evening. 

The Education Department agreed to the order after a hearing Tuesday, where Justice Department lawyers said they didn’t know which DOGE employees had access to the student data, The New York Times reported. The next hearing will be held Friday.

Last week, some DOGE employees received access to the databases, which contain private student information. That news concerned higher education groups and prompted a lawsuit from the University of California Student Association, which accused the department of allowing potential privacy act violations.

Student Defense, a legal advocacy organization, and Public Citizen Litigation Group are representing the students in the lawsuit.

“While today’s agreement puts further damage on hold, we look forward to putting a permanent end to these egregious violations,” Student Defense vice president Dan Zibel said in a statement Tuesday. “Millions of students still are questioning whether their personal information is in unsafe hands, and we need answers from the Department of Education to fully account for any data that’s already been breached.”