A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from using a revamped federal database designed to help states verify voter citizenship. The judge ruled that the program violated privacy protections and risked wrongly removing eligible Americans from voter rolls ahead of the November midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued the ruling Monday, siding with voting rights and privacy advocates who challenged recent changes to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. This is a Department of Homeland Security system traditionally used to verify immigration and citizenship status.
The Trump administration had expanded the system’s capabilities last year, allowing state and local election officials to conduct large-scale citizenship checks of voter registration rolls. The changes included broader search functions and access to sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers.
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In a 75-page opinion, Sooknanan concluded that the overhaul made the system less reliable and increased the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters. She wrote that the federal government had “knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens” in a manner that threatened voting rights.
The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of advocacy organizations, including the League of Women Voters and privacy rights groups, which argued that the expanded database improperly aggregated personal information and produced inaccurate citizenship determinations. According to the plaintiffs, some naturalized citizens and foreign-born Americans were incorrectly flagged as potential noncitizens, leading to concerns about wrongful voter removals.
Court filings showed that several Republican-led states had already used the upgraded SAVE system to compare voter rolls against federal records. Critics argued that inaccuracies within the database resulted in legitimate voters being targeted for removal. Texas was cited in the ruling as an example where citizens were mistakenly flagged during eligibility reviews.
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The decision represents another legal setback for Trump’s broader efforts to increase federal involvement in election administration. Courts have previously blocked or challenged many election-related initiatives, including measures involving voter eligibility verification and voting procedures.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended the SAVE system as a tool for preventing noncitizen voting and ensuring election integrity. Administration officials have argued that states need access to federal data to maintain accurate voter rolls.
The injunction prevents the federal government from continuing to provide states access to the revamped version of the database while legal challenges proceed.