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.
The temporary ruling by U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., is the first step in a lawsuit against the Labor Department by one of the largest U.S. labor unions, which alleges billionaire Musk could obtain sensitive information about investigations into his own companies and competitors by accessing government computer systems.
Bates ruled that “although the Court harbors concerns about defendants’ alleged conduct,” the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) had not shown it was harmed by the Labor Department’s actions. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement that the decision was “a setback, but not a defeat,” and that the union would provide more evidence to support its claims.