On February 11, a federal judge from the U.S. SDNY granted in part and denied in part an emergency motion by DOJ contesting a temporary restraining order (TRO) granted on February 8 that restricted political appointees’ access to Treasury payment systems. DOJ challenged the ruling, filing an emergency motion to dissolve, modify or clarify the TRO (covered by InfoBytes here). In its February 11 order, the court modified the TRO to clarify that the Secretary of the Treasury and other Senate-confirmed senior Treasury officers are not prohibited from accessing the Treasury’s payment systems — but otherwise maintained the restrictions on political appointees and special government employees.

As previously covered by InfoBytes, the previous TRO had blocked access to political appointees and “special government employees,” including those at DOGE, from accessing Treasury payment systems. Now, only certain members can access the payment systems legally. SDNY granted the TRO due to the risk of disclosure of sensitive and confidential information as well as a risk of increased vulnerability to hacking. The court explained that the TRO was intended to maintain the status quo pending adjudication of the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.