Key facts
- The US Supreme Court has lifted restrictions on a federal database used to verify voter citizenship.
- The ruling allows states to use the Department of Homeland Security's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.
- Critics argue the database could wrongly remove eligible voters from rolls.
- A federal judge had previously blocked the use of the revamped SAVE program.
- The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court declined to pause the judge's ruling.
The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily lifted restrictions on a federal voter database, allowing the Trump administration to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to check the citizenship status of registered voters. The decision, issued on Friday, grants the administration a win in its efforts to combat noncitizen voting ahead of the November midterm elections.
The court's emergency order allows states to utilize the Department of Homeland Security's SAVE program, which cross-references voter rolls with federal records such as Social Security numbers. This move effectively blocks a June ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, who had deemed the revamped version of SAVE illegal, citing privacy rights violations and the risk of wrongly purging eligible voters.
An appeal to the Supreme Court followed after a federal appeals court declined to pause Sooknanan's ruling. The Trump administration argued that the district court's order hinders efforts to detect ineligible voters, thereby undermining election integrity. The SAVE program, originally created to verify immigration status for public benefits, was significantly expanded by the administration to include bulk queries of voter rolls and linkage with Social Security Administration data.
Critics, including the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, contend that the expanded SAVE program violates privacy laws and could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible U.S. citizens. They argue that Congress has not authorized the creation of such a national database of citizens. Travis County, Texas, officials reported that a significant percentage of voters flagged by SAVE as potential noncitizens were, in fact, U.S. citizens.