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by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 21– New York and other states on Friday filed for an injunction against the Trump administration and early Saturday morning obtained a Temporary Restraining Order that the Administration is 

"restrained from granting access to all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department, to any Treasury Department payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees."    Inner City Press, which closely covers the SDNY court, immediately put the order on its DocumentCloud here.

    A day later questions were being raised whether the restrained "political appointees" included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It would appear the argument will be in Tuesday's filing and Friday's argument. Inner City Press asked, but will it be addressed before?

Yes. After 11 pm on Sunday, February 9 DOJ filed to vacate the TRO, arguing that "the Order could be read to cover all political leadership within Treasury—including even Secretary Bessent."Memo of law on Patreon here.

The states filed opposition, saying the TROs are not appealable, and that the TRO should only be modified to allow the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City the access it had before January 20. 11-page memo on Patreon here.  Reply was due by 11 pm.

Analysis including on how this midnight fight on clarifying the scope of the order might have been avoided is on X for Subscribers here and Substack here

On February 14, after a press statement by AG James, the arguments, Inner City Press live tweeted here. Judge Vargas said she would rule soon.

On February 21: "ORDERED that the US Department of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Treasury are restrained from granting access to any Treasury Department payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees to any employee, officer or contractor employed or affiliated with the United States DOGE Service, DOGE, or the DOGE Team established at the Treasury Department, pending further Order of this Court; ORDERED that, by Monday, March 24, 2025, the United States Department of the Treasury shall submit a report to this Court, as further set forth herein. Upon receipt of the above submissions from the Department of the Treasury, the Court will schedule prompt briefing to address whether the Treasury Department has adequately redressed the violations of the APA found herein, so as to justify the termination or modification of the preliminary injunction."

  Inner City Press will continue reporting in real time on the case.

The case is State of New York, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., 1:25-cv-1144 (Vargas)

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