It doesn’t look like the judge will instantly stop DOGE access and firings.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., expressed concern about Elon Musk’s potential harm to government agencies and the need for more information.Musk and his team have accessed secret data and fired a lot of people.

At a hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said she needed to see more proof of impending harm before she agreed to grant a group of states’ request for a temporary restraining order. This would stop Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team from entering federal agency data systems and making decisions about federal employees’ jobs.

According to an attorney for the states, Chutkan was “concerned” and “troubled” by the harm that DOGE’s acts might cause, but she wanted to see more details than just “a generalized fear that this is going to happen.”

We want to hear from people who work for the federal government. Please email us at tips@nbcuni.com or get in touch with us in one of these other ways if you’re ready to talk.

At the same time, Chutkan criticized a lawyer from the Justice Department for not checking to see if thousands of government workers had been fired since Friday and what other firings were planned for the next two weeks. She told the lawyer to look into it and get back to her.

“DOGE’s actions in this area have been very random and unpredictable,” she said, adding that she didn’t know if this was “on purpose or because of the scope of their remit.”

Chutkan said she planned to make a ruling about the states’ request in twenty-four hours.

The states also asked for a temporary blocking order at a hearing on Friday, but Chutkan said no because the relief they wanted was too broad.

In the past few weeks, thousands of government workers have been fired or put on leave. An employees’ union says that nearly 300 people who worked for the Federal Aviation Administration were fired over the weekend. There are also hundreds of people who work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including fellows who are responsible for important public health roles; people who work for the Transportation Department; people who work for the Department of Homeland Security; and immigration judges, among others.