Since President Trump’s inauguration, the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) has sought to access critical data from across the government, including data that contains information regarding Americans.
This sweeping campaign to access highly sensitive data has reached the IRS, which houses some of the nation’s most sensitive information systems and where special protections govern access to this information. Unfettered access, without regard to statutory privacy protections, will mean DOGE will have access to confidential business information, IRS investigations, social security numbers, individuals’ financial well-being, bank account information and more. DOGE will even have access to tax records belonging to Elon Musk’s business competitors, meaning Mr. Musk will have something that “no other business owner on the planet has access to” regarding their competitors, according to the suit, which also highlights the administration’s stated interest in data about those who have taken the child tax credit.
Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and Communications Workers of America are represented by Democracy Forward, which filed an emergency suit in federal court to stop Elon Musk’s DOGE from unlawfully accessing confidential and sensitive taxpayer data from the IRS. The lawsuit asks the court to halt DOGE’s unfettered and lawless access to personal data at levels that far exceed those experienced since Watergate and endanger the privacy of hundreds of millions of Americans.
During the week of August 4, 2025, the IRS shared tens of thousands of taxpayers’ data within days of receiving an ICE request for the addresses of more than 1 million taxpayers, purportedly under a narrow exception to confidentiality laws. Within the week, the IRS disseminated as much taxpayer data to ICE as it has previously shared with all federal law enforcement agencies in a year. This data sharing is just another consequence of the IRS’s adoption of a new, unlawful data policy that imperils hundreds of millions of Americans’ sensitive personal data.
On August 20, 2025, the coalition filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent further harm. They asked a federal court to issue emergency relief requiring the IRS to halt its unprecedented and mass sharing of taxpayer data with ICE.
Timeline
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Lawsuit filed.
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Motion for preliminary injunction filed.
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The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted our motion for preliminary injunction.
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The government filed a motion to stay the requirement to produce an administrative record. The court denied the government’s request the same day.
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The government filed a submission of administrative record as requested by the court.
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The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted our motion for preliminary injunction, halting the mass sharing of taxpayer data with ICE.
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The government appealed the order granting the preliminary injunction to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
