# The most-sued party in federal court: whoever runs Social Security

Published 2026-11-07 · By Pushbuild · Data: [US Federal Civil Cases API – 10.9M District Court Cases Since 1988](https://pushbuild.com/apis/federal-civil-cases.html)

**Since 2021 the Social Security commissioner, under five names in the records, was the defendant in 68,322 federal cases, more than the United States itself.** Most are appeals of denied disability claims.

| Defendant as recorded | Cases 2021-26 | Most common case type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURIT | 37,029 | Social Security: disability (DIWC/DIWW) |
| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | 20,946 | Prisoner: vacate sentence |
| USA | 13,112 | Prisoner: vacate sentence |
| MAYORKAS ET AL | 10,420 | Other immigration |
| KIJAKAZI | 10,397 | Social Security: disability (DIWC/DIWW) |
| DOE | 8,927 | Copyright |
| JOHN DOE SUBSCRIBER ASSIGNED I | 8,010 | Copyright |
| NOEM ET AL | 7,118 | Habeas corpus: alien detainee |
| SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION | 6,973 | Social Security: SSI |
| BISIGNANO | 6,475 | Social Security: disability (DIWC/DIWW) |
| UNITED STATES OF AMERIC ET AL | 6,141 | Motor vehicle personal injury |
| SEALED | 5,461 | Qui tam False Claims Act |
| BONDI ET AL | 5,408 | Habeas corpus: alien detainee |
| GARLAND ET AL | 5,261 | Other immigration |
| JUUL LABS INC ET AL | 5,127 | Personal injury product liability |
| THE PARTNERSHIPS AND UN ET AL | 4,948 | Trademark |
| SYNGENTA CROP PROTECTIO ET AL | 4,793 | Personal injury product liability |
| EQUIFAX INFORMATION SER ET AL | 4,620 | Consumer credit |
| OMALLEY | 4,505 | Social Security: disability (DIWC/DIWW) |
| UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC ET AL | 4,390 | Personal injury product liability |

## Caveats

Defendant names are truncated in the source and spelled several ways. Mass-tort cases in multidistrict litigation are excluded.

## Sources

- [Federal Judicial Center Integrated Database](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb), read through the Pushbuild [US Federal Civil Cases API](https://pushbuild.com/apis/federal-civil-cases.html) on 2026-11-07

Data as of 2026-11-07. Every figure in this post is in the table above and the CSV below.

Download the data behind this post: [b1-most-named-defendants-2021-26.csv](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/data/b1-most-named-defendants-2021-26.csv)

## Get this data

Every number in this post comes from the [US Federal Civil Cases API – 10.9M District Court Cases Since 1988](https://pushbuild.com/apis/federal-civil-cases.html). $0.0008 per row returned; every key gets $1 of free usage each month.

```
curl -X POST https://api.pushbuild.com/federal-civil-cases/run \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"party": "Tesla", "maxItems": 20}'
```

[API docs and key](https://pushbuild.com/apis/federal-civil-cases.html)[More analysis from this data](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/api/federal-civil-cases/)Embed this chart

Free to reuse with the credit link. Paste this HTML into your page, or use the [SVG file](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/most-sued-defendants-federal-court/chart.svg).

Want a table like this in Google Sheets, refreshed on demand? Free script: [copy a web table into Google Sheets](https://pushbuild.com/free/scripts/website-table-to-sheets/).

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Header photo: [Rsparks3](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Data_center_roof.jpg), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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As of 2026-11-07. Source: https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/most-sued-defendants-federal-court/