American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations v. Department of Labor, No. 1:25-cv-00339 (JDB) (D.D.C.). Unions and allied organizations asked Bates to restrain the Department of Labor, and later HHS and the CFPB, from giving U.S. DOGE Service personnel access to non-public agency data.
On February 7, 2025, Bates denied the first temporary-restraining-order motion. The order (ECF 18) states that on the current record the plaintiffs had failed to establish standing, and that although the court “harbors concerns about defendants’ alleged conduct, it must deny plaintiffs’ motion at this time.”
Epoch Times, Fox News, and Conservative Treehouse reported a further denial on or about February 14, 2025, after the caption expanded. Those pieces quote Bates writing that the Economy Act question was “novel and complex,” that plaintiffs had not shown a substantial likelihood that USDS “is not an agency,” and that if it is an agency it “may detail its employees to other agencies consistent with the Economy Act.” Epoch Times and Fox also quote him calling DOGE a “Goldilocks entity: not an agency when it is burdensome but an agency when it is convenient.” Those sentences are reported from the written ruling. They are not a finding that DOGE committed a crime, and they are not a permanent injunction. A TRO denial left access in place on that record.