Trump Administration Seeks Supreme Court Review for Voter-Screening Tool
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Trump Administration Seeks Supreme Court Review for Voter-Screening Tool
- The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the use of a federal citizenship database, known as SAVE, to screen state voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections, a system that a federal judge previously ruled was unlawfully created.
- U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled in June 2026 that the administration acted unlawfully in expanding the SAVE database, citing violations of federal privacy laws and the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters.
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The Trump administration has requested the Supreme Court’s intervention to permit the use of a federal citizenship database, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, for reviewing state voter rolls before the upcoming midterm elections. This request follows a June 2026 ruling by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who found that the administration unlawfully expanded the SAVE database. Judge Sooknanan’s decision blocked the nationwide use of the expanded system, including its bulk-search capabilities and connection to Social Security records, due to violations of federal privacy and administrative laws.
The SAVE system, originally established in 1986, was designed to help government agencies verify the immigration status of individuals applying for public benefits. However, under an executive order from the Trump administration last year, it was modified to include records of natural-born citizens and access Social Security numbers to verify citizenship for voter registration. Critics, including voting rights organizations, argue that this overhauled system could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters, as it has been shown to incorrectly flag U.S. citizens as non-citizens in some instances.
The administration’s Solicitor General, D. John Sauer, has called Judge Sooknanan’s ruling “indefensible” and argued that it “threatens the integrity of upcoming elections.” Sauer also contended that the judge exceeded her authority and that the voting rights groups lacked proper legal standing. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently denied the Trump administration’s request to stay the district court’s block on the SAVE database, leading to the current appeal to the Supreme Court. The administration maintains that the SAVE system does not disqualify voters but merely informs states about citizenship confirmation, asserting that any voter injury would be caused by the states, not the federal government.