The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to move forward with a plan to use an updated federal database for confirming voters’ citizenship before the 2026 midterms. In an unsigned, seven-page ruling issued Friday, the justices paused a lower court order that had blocked the government from using the revised system, citing concerns about potential violations of federal privacy laws.
The controversy revolves around the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which was overhauled in late March under an executive order from former President Donald Trump. The changes broadened the database to include records of U.S.-born citizens, granted access to Social Security numbers, and enabled multiple simultaneous searches—tools state and local officials could deploy to verify voter eligibility.
Critics, including the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, filed a lawsuit challenging the updates. On June 22, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled that the expanded SAVE system violated federal privacy protections, the Social Security Act, and administrative regulations. She warned that states had already removed U.S. citizens from voter rolls based on flawed database information, describing the government’s actions as a threat to voting rights.
Trump administration defends SAVE system limits
The Trump administration countered that the SAVE system only informs states whether federal records confirm citizenship—not that it mandates removals. The U.S. Solicitor General, D. John Sauer, also argued that the challengers lacked legal standing because the alleged harm stemmed from state actions rather than direct federal violations.
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In dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticized the majority’s decision as questionable, arguing it ignored voter risks while prioritizing the government’s claims of harm. She noted that the SAVE expansion had never been interpreted by the Court before, raising concerns about its legality. Jackson cautioned that even if the system’s use was limited before the election, long-term damage to privacy and voting rights could be severe.
The Supreme Court’s majority ruled that the challengers had standing to sue, citing a Louisiana voter who faced extra citizenship verification due to database errors. However, the justices concluded the plaintiffs were unlikely to win on the merits, pointing to a 1996 immigration law they said authorized the SAVE changes. The opinion acknowledged that while states cannot purge voter rolls in the 90 days before elections, they may still perform individual checks using the system.
Court’s narrow ruling leaves legal questions unanswered
The case now returns to the lower courts, where the government’s broader arguments about the SAVE system’s legality will be examined.
The Court’s intervention occurs as states prepare for voter registration deadlines and early voting ahead of the November 3, 2026, election. Whether the modified database will be fully operational, or face further legal challenges, remains uncertain.
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The unsigned majority opinion highlighted that Section 403(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) grants the Department of Homeland Security broad authority to obtain citizenship and immigration records from other agencies, including the Social Security Administration. The justices cited this provision as congressional approval for the SAVE expansion, noting it allows DHS to request and receive necessary verification data. However, the ruling did not address whether the modified system complies with the Social Security Act’s restrictions on disclosing nonpublic data or the Privacy Act’s limits on sharing personally identifiable information without proper authorization.
Legal scholars question expanded data-sharing authority
The decision clarified that while states cannot systematically remove voters from rolls in the 90-day window before federal elections under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), they may still conduct targeted eligibility checks using the SAVE database. The majority distinguished between bulk purges, prohibited by the NVRA, and one-by-one verifications, which it deemed permissible under federal law. Yet the ruling did not resolve whether the system’s ability to run multiple searches at once or its inclusion of U.S.-born citizens’ records exceeds DHS’s authorized data-sharing powers. Legal scholars argue that the Court’s deferral to agency interpretations leaves unresolved whether the changes violate the Administrative Procedure Act’s rulemaking requirements for substantive policy shifts.
The D.C. Circuit’s earlier refusal to grant the government’s stay, issued just 10 days before the Supreme Court’s intervention, had signaled skepticism about the SAVE modifications. The appeals court panel did not rule on the merits but noted that challengers had shown a strong likelihood of success on their claim that the system violates the Social Security Act’s ban on disclosing nonpublic records for non-SSA purposes. The Supreme Court’s stay does not bind the appeals court on the final merits, meaning the D.C. Circuit could still reject the government’s interpretation of IIRIRA even if the stay is lifted.
