The Trump administration has approached the Supreme Court, requesting intervention in an ongoing lawsuit concerning a controversial data system used for reviewing state voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections. This move follows a federal judge’s June ruling that deemed this action unlawful.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan identified that the Trump administration violated several federal laws by establishing the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. This system contained sensitive personal information and reportedly led to the erroneous removal of U.S. citizens from voter rolls in certain states.
Sooknanan expressed that the federal government had infringed upon American citizens’ privacy rights, jeopardizing their fundamental right to vote. President Trump’s initiative aimed to uncover evidence of noncitizens voting in federal elections, a theory largely dispelled and proven infrequent.
Despite an appeal, over the weekend, the D.C. Circuit’s Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision, refusing the Trump administration’s request to lift the restriction on the SAVE system.
In a recent development, Solicitor General D. John Sauer criticized Judge Sooknanan’s ruling, claiming it undermines the integrity of impending elections and that she overstepped her jurisdiction. Sauer contended that the original plaintiffs lacked the necessary legal standing to sue. He implored the Supreme Court to annul Sooknanan’s stay and permit the SAVE system’s usage.
Sauer argued, “SAVE does not disqualify any voter; it simply informs the States whether the federal government can verify citizenship. Thus, any voter injury results from the States, not the federal government, and is unaffected by the court’s relief against the federal government.”
This new plea follows a prior request by the Trump administration for the Supreme Court to reinstate new Postal Service guidelines for mail-in voting in the upcoming midterm elections.
The SAVE database emerged from several federal agencies following President Trump’s executive order mandating a new proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration. This order tasked the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration with creating a database that would enable state and local officials to confirm an individual’s citizenship or immigration status during voter registration.
The executive order spurred numerous legal challenges, and significant portions have been halted by court orders. Nonetheless, it initiated modifications to the existing SAVE system, expanding its scope to include natural-born citizens’ records, accessing Social Security numbers from the SSA, and allowing bulk record searches by authorized entities.
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