An appeals court has halted the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive Social Security data due to a restraining order filed by the Trump administration.

The ruling came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which dismissed the government’s appeal due to lack of jurisdiction, allowing the case to continue in the district court.

On March 20, a federal judge temporarily prohibited billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing Social Security systems containing personal information on millions of Americans, describing the attempt as a “fishing expedition.”

That order also required the team to delete any personally identifiable data in their possession.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland found that the team got broad access to sensitive information at the Social Security ministration to search for fraud with little justification.

“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” she wrote.

The order allows DOGE staffers to access data that’s been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable if they undergo training and background checks.

The Trump administration says DOGE is targeting waste in the federal government. Musk has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of fraud, describing it as a “Ponzi scheme” and insisting that reducing waste in the program is an important way to cut government spending.