Elon Musk’s assertion of power over some of the government’s largest and most sensitive data systems isn’t merely a contravention of American statutory law, administrative norms, and individual privacy rights. It is an act of constitutional restructuring, and should be understood in those terms.

Musk’s team has accessed a Department of Treasury database that guides the disbursement of more than $5 trillion in federal funds. It is tussling with senior officials at the Internal Revenue Service over access to tax returns, among the most protected federal data, and at the Social Security Administration over access to data systems containing medical and bank records. A court has temporarily blocked Musk and his team from obtaining data about millions of Americans’ student loans, but only for now. And just last week, Musk sought access to “the most sensitive of all”: a database reflecting ongoing wage and income information for most working Americans.

The Constitution distributes power among the branches of government to prevent its concentration and maintain its balance. It organizes many different forms of power, but particularly significant are the powers that take the form of “instruments,” to borrow James Madison’s term for the government’s material tools. Chief among them, the Constitution commits the “power of the purse” to Congress. By contrast, only the president can wield the power of the sword as the commander in chief of the armed forces. Those two profound instruments, guided by different branches, can also counterbalance each other, as when Congress withholds funding for disfavored armed interventions.

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