A federal judge on Friday declined to block Elon Musk's government cost-cutting department from accessing the U.S. Department of Labor's systems, an initial setback for the government employee unions resisting his efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

A different judge temporarily restricted DOGE access to Treasury Department systems that process trillions of dollars in payments per year to two employees with “read only” privileges. Thirteen states have also vowed to sue over DOGE access to federal payment systems.

Musk's rapid takeover of US government agencies has enabled the businessman to exert unprecedented control over America's federal workforce.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit seeks to block DOGE's access to federal employee data and demands the deletion of any data already obtained.

A coalition of labor unions filed a lawsuit Monday asking a federal court to stop Elon Musk’s team from accessing private data at the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management.