SCOTUS Allows Trump Use of Voter Citizenship Database — SkimNews
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- Supreme Court lifted restrictions on the Trump administration using the SAVE database for voter citizenship checks, overriding a federal judge's ruling that the system violated privacy rights.
- Department of Homeland Security expanded the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) programme to allow bulk searches using Social Security data to identify non-citizen voters.
- Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning that the decision risks disenfranchising lawful voters, stating the harm of burdening eligible voters outweighs any government interest.
- League of Women Voters, the lead plaintiff, called the ruling 'profoundly disappointing' and pledged continued legal efforts to block the use of the database.
- Travis County, Texas officials found at least 10% of voters flagged as non-citizens by the system were actually US citizens, raising concerns about accuracy.
- 27 states currently use the SAVE system to check voter eligibility, though participation is voluntary and some, like Georgia, say they apply additional verification safeguards.
Why it matters: The ruling enables a federal tool with documented error rates to be used in voter roll checks just weeks before an election, putting potentially millions of eligible voters at risk of being wrongly targeted while empowering states to pursue aggressive purges under federal backing.
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