{"id":109693,"date":"2025-03-04T14:39:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T22:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/04\/doge-cuts-off-government-pacer-access-because-they-are-the-dumbest-people-on-the-planet\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T14:39:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T22:39:25","slug":"doge-cuts-off-government-pacer-access-because-they-are-the-dumbest-people-on-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/04\/doge-cuts-off-government-pacer-access-because-they-are-the-dumbest-people-on-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"DOGE Cuts Off Government PACER Access Because They Are The Dumbest People On The Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elon Musk and his \u201cCoD waiting room-cum-audit team\u201d continue their clumsy speedrun through the federal government<\/a>. Each day brings another comical cockup from DOGE\u2019s teenaged staff, from firing all the people in charge of nuclear weapons<\/a> to casually spawning a whole army of foreign intelligence assets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, the DOGE team proudly-yet-accidentally canceled the SEC\u2019s Westlaw subscription<\/a> while trying to punish Reuters\u2014never bothering to check if they were even the same thing, let alone realizing that Westlaw access is, you know, kind of essential for the SEC\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

Crackerjack work, guys!<\/p>\n

While chaste by virtue of women with self-respect, the DOGE team was unchastened by the SEC experience and followed up by cutting off government access to another essential legal resource:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

After eliminating SEC’s access to Westlaw, DOGE briefly limited Treasury’s access to PACER.www.wsj.com\/politics\/pol\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-03-04T12:59:00.875Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This is extra funny given that, unlike a privately owned tool Westlaw, this effort to reduce government spending was immediately offset because PACER is a government revenue stream<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PACER should be free, of course. It\u2019s a slush fund for the judiciary<\/a> and we\u2019ve already tried to make it free in the past to no avail.<\/a> But for now it does<\/em> cost and the Treasury needs access to it in order to run the various cases it\u2019s involved in, lest it ends up costing the government even more money<\/em>. Something that, until last week, was so obvious that no one even thought to question.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what makes DOGE the biggest legal technology story going right now. The infrastructure of legal research, access to case law, and the basic mechanics of litigation are increasingly wrapped up in digital tools. The \u201cDunning-Kruger Office of Government Efficiency\u201d doesn\u2019t understand legal technology and they don\u2019t even realize they don\u2019t understand it. To them, Westlaw and PACER are just line items to slash. Next it\u2019ll be the eDiscovery platform or the contract review system. And then \u2014 like the looming cancellation of Verizon\u2019s FAA contract to be replaced by Musk\u2019s Starlink<\/a> \u2014 switched out for some shoddily constructed Musk product promising to do the job just as well because he fed it \u201call court cases<\/a>.\u201d Then Trump will decide Bill Gates insulted him in 1996 and the government loses all of Microsoft\u2019s legal tools.<\/p>\n

And when the government ceases to have functional lawyering products, it impacts the whole industry.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Elon Musk\u2019s DOGE Can\u2019t Even Secure A Website, Let Alone The Government<\/a>
Trump Cancels The SEC\u2019s Westlaw Subscription For Probably The Dumbest Possible Reason<\/a>
Elon Musk Feeds AI \u2018All Court Cases,\u2019 Promises It Will Replace Judges Because He\u2019s An Idiot
<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post DOGE Cuts Off Government PACER Access Because They Are The Dumbest People On The Planet<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elon Musk and his \u201cCoD waiting room-cum-audit team\u201d continue their clumsy speedrun through the federal government<\/a>. Each day brings another comical cockup from DOGE\u2019s teenaged staff, from firing all the people in charge of nuclear weapons<\/a> to casually spawning a whole army of foreign intelligence assets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, the DOGE team proudly-yet-accidentally canceled the SEC\u2019s Westlaw subscription<\/a> while trying to punish Reuters\u2014never bothering to check if they were even the same thing, let alone realizing that Westlaw access is, you know, kind of essential for the SEC\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

Crackerjack work, guys!<\/p>\n

While chaste by virtue of women with self-respect, the DOGE team was unchastened by the SEC experience and followed up by cutting off government access to another essential legal resource:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

After eliminating SEC’s access to Westlaw, DOGE briefly limited Treasury’s access to PACER.www.wsj.com\/politics\/pol\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/div>\n

emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-03-04T12:59:00.875Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This is extra funny given that, unlike a privately owned tool Westlaw, this effort to reduce government spending was immediately offset because PACER is a government revenue stream<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PACER should be free, of course. It\u2019s a slush fund for the judiciary<\/a> and we\u2019ve already tried to make it free in the past to no avail.<\/a> But for now it does<\/em> cost and the Treasury needs access to it in order to run the various cases it\u2019s involved in, lest it ends up costing the government even more money<\/em>. Something that, until last week, was so obvious that no one even thought to question.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what makes DOGE the biggest legal technology story going right now. The infrastructure of legal research, access to case law, and the basic mechanics of litigation are increasingly wrapped up in digital tools. The \u201cDunning-Kruger Office of Government Efficiency\u201d doesn\u2019t understand legal technology and they don\u2019t even realize they don\u2019t understand it. To them, Westlaw and PACER are just line items to slash. Next it\u2019ll be the eDiscovery platform or the contract review system. And then \u2014 like the looming cancellation of Verizon\u2019s FAA contract to be replaced by Musk\u2019s Starlink<\/a> \u2014 switched out for some shoddily constructed Musk product promising to do the job just as well because he fed it \u201call court cases<\/a>.\u201d Then Trump will decide Bill Gates insulted him in 1996 and the government loses all of Microsoft\u2019s legal tools.<\/p>\n

And when the government ceases to have functional lawyering products, it impacts the whole industry.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Elon Musk\u2019s DOGE Can\u2019t Even Secure A Website, Let Alone The Government<\/a>
Trump Cancels The SEC\u2019s Westlaw Subscription For Probably The Dumbest Possible Reason<\/a>
Elon Musk Feeds AI \u2018All Court Cases,\u2019 Promises It Will Replace Judges Because He\u2019s An Idiot
<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images) Elon Musk and his \u201cCoD waiting room-cum-audit team\u201d continue their clumsy speedrun through the federal government. Each day brings another comical cockup from DOGE\u2019s teenaged staff, from firing all the people in charge of nuclear weapons to casually spawning a whole army of foreign intelligence assets. A couple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Headshot-300x200-Gtykml.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}