The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to use an expanded federal citizenship-verification database to assist states in checking voter rolls ahead of the November midterm elections.
In a 6-3 decision issued Friday, the court lifted a lower-court order that had restricted the Department of Homeland Security’s use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program for large-scale voter eligibility checks.
SAVE was created in 1986 primarily to help government agencies verify immigration or citizenship status for eligibility for certain public benefits. States have also used the system for voter verification since 2005. The Trump administration expanded the system by linking it with Social Security Administration data, allowing searches involving U.S.-born citizens and enabling bulk verification requests.
The Supreme Court’s majority said the lower court’s restrictions interfered with the federal government’s efforts to assist state and local officials in administering the midterm elections.
“The District Court’s order thus inhibits the Federal Government’s efforts to assist state and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections,” the majority wrote, concluding that the circumstances favored temporarily lifting the restrictions.
The ruling does not resolve the underlying legal challenge to the expanded SAVE system. Instead, it allows the administration to use the program while litigation continues. The court’s three liberal justices dissented.
The court also noted limits on how states can act on information obtained from the database close to Election Day. Under the National Voter Registration Act, states generally cannot conduct systematic removals of ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election.
The Trump administration says the expanded system is intended to help states identify noncitizens who may be improperly registered to vote. Critics have raised concerns about privacy, data accuracy and the possibility that eligible voters could be incorrectly flagged.
Noncitizen voting in federal elections is illegal. Available evidence has not shown it occurring on a widespread scale, despite President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that it poses a significant threat to U.S. elections.
