Well, very recently, we all saw the formation of something called the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE for short, which, to a lot of people’s surprise, is way too bold of an agency in the country. Like, recently, we saw it get involved in some serious legal battle, and that has now taken the shape of this Doge Student Borrower Data Lawsuit that we know today. For those who have no idea about it yet, well, this DOGE agency is actually backed by Elon Musk and was created by the current aka 47th President of the United States, Mr/ Donald Trump himself. So what do they have to do with student loans though?
Well, as per the details that are already out, this agency actually wants access to a bunch of details regarding student loans, and we’re talking about personal information like Social Security number, income, tax details, and all that.
So what then? Well, the thing is, it is actually their claim that they want to root out the things that causing the fraud and mismanagement in most of these student loan programs, but if you hear the points mentioned by the people who are opposing this, they say that this can lead to huge privacy risk down the line.
How Did This All Go Down? The Timeline You Need to Know
The thing is, just this year, in February 2025, we all got to know that DOGE was already at it, like accessing the federal student loan data. And sure enough, when this detail came out, a lot of people weren’t too happy about it, and that’s precisely why the University of California Student Association (UCSA) immediately filed a lawsuit demanding that DOGE be cut off. Like directly cut off? Oh yes, that’s what they have demanded so far.
Just a few days after that, we saw the Department of Education stepping in and somehow temporarily blocking the access of DOGE to some systems until the court comes to a final decision or conclusion.
In the country, many people were hoping that the court would straight up deny the request of DOGE, but nah, the court, on 18th February 2025, allowed the DOGE to continue. All good now? Oh, well, that’s a bit complicated because just 6 days after that, on 24th February, a different judge in Maryland, named Deborah Boardman, actually went on to pause this access of DOGE by issuing a restraining order. But that was just until 10th March 2025, and now that’s over too.
So What Now?
Well, it is 17th March today, and once again, the DOGE is free to access the student loan data as they wish, and sure enough, not a lot of people are happy about it once again. The people who are opposing this decision won’t back down, so don’t be surprised to see some more drama in this case down the line, but worry not, we’ll keep you posted about that. So just follow along.