Ancestors

Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-03 at 23:36

Lawsuit filed today against Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to enjoin him from continuing to give Musk and his minions personal and financial information about millions of Americans. Complaint at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69607077/1/alliance-for-retired-americans-v-bessent/ 1/ #LawFedi

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Toot

Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-03 at 23:40

Attorneys on the suit are from Public Citizen Litigation Group and State Democracy Defenders Fund and they have written a great complaint filed on behalf of two unions and a civil society organization for retired Americans. In a case like this, choosing the plaintiffs is critical. Cause lawyers like the ones who brought the suit have to identify clients to whom the courts will award standing - that is, people and organizations who can claim sufficiently discrete harms to ground their suits. 2/

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Descendants

Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-03 at 23:43

The constellation of cause lawyers, civil society collective groups, and unions is going to be very important going forward. This is the ecosystem of actors who can fight fascism, in court and elsewhere. In this suit, the plaintiffs' complaint is straightforward:... 3/

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Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-03 at 23:46

From the complaint itself: "In his first week as Treasury Secretary defendant Bessent violated these [privacy laws]. Elon Musk and/or other DOGE members had sought access to the Bureau’s records for some time, only to be rebuffed by the employee then in charge of the Bureau. Within a week of being sworn in as Treasury Secretary, Mr. Bessent placed that civil servant on leave and granted DOGE-affiliated individuals full access to the Bureau’s data and the computer systems that house them." 4/

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Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-03 at 23:48

"He did so without making any public announcement, providing any legal justification or explanation for his decision, or undertaking the process required by law for altering the agency’s disclosure policies."

Note from me: These actions are themselves contrary to specific laws related to information people provide the IRS and the Administrative Procedure Act which governs all federal agencies, including Treasury Department. 5/

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Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-03 at 23:52

More from the complaint: "The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented. Millions of people cannot avoid engaging in financial transactions with the federal government and, therefore, cannot avoid having their sensitive personal and financial information maintained in government records. ... 6/

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Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-03 at 23:54

".... And because Defendants’ actions and decisions are shrouded in secrecy, individuals will not have even basic information about what personal or financial information that Defendants are sharing with outside parties or how their information is being used." 7/ Full complaint at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69607077/1/alliance-for-retired-americans-v-bessent/ 7/7

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Written by mimiimim on 2025-02-04 at 00:05

@heidilifeldman thank you for sharing this!

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Written by Wesley Cook ⚡🚲 on 2025-02-04 at 00:12

@heidilifeldman thank you so much for posting this thread. It restores just a bit of hope seeing how others are pushing back.

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Written by Diane on 2025-02-04 at 01:45

@heidilifeldman

Can congress impeach someone they confirmed?

It'd be nice if there was political support for putting trumps nominations on hold while we remove the ones currently involved in committing a coup.

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Written by Chuck on 2025-02-04 at 19:26

@alienghic @heidilifeldman Yes, look at the attempted impeachment of Mayorkas by the R's last term. It isn't common but there is a path for it.

The sad thing, and a glaring indication of our challenge, is that no supreme court justice, secretary, or president that has been impeached has ever been convicted and removed.

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Written by Diane on 2025-02-04 at 20:09

@ChuckMcManis @heidilifeldman

Yeah it does look like the conviction rules fail in the face of party loyalty.

A better design might be to have a pool of jurors with privacy protections chosen through the usual jury selection process from across the country, than to be depend on politicians being willing to do the right thing.

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Written by Tammy Gentzel on 2025-02-04 at 01:51

@heidilifeldman What happens if the lawsuit is successful and he refuses to cease and desist?

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Written by Shannon Persists, Not Complies on 2025-02-04 at 02:14

@heidilifeldman Wow! You're amazing!

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Written by Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor on 2025-02-04 at 02:34

@heidilifeldman THANK YOU … I’ve been waiting all day for news of just such a lawsuit. I also wish someone would sue Emonazi specifically.

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Written by Heidi Li Feldman on 2025-02-04 at 02:38

@PamelaBarroway If they do, they will probably not bring similar causes of action since the ones in the suit I mentioned are premised on improper government action and part of their point is that Musk is not a properly appointed government official. Musk would have to be sued in tort.

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