WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday ruled that a revised version of the Trump administration’s use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to check voter citizenship information was unlawful and blocked the program from continuing in its current form, according to court records and reporting by The Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan in Washington issued the ruling after advocacy groups challenged changes made to the SAVE system, which is operated by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The plaintiffs argued that the expanded system improperly used sensitive personal information and created risks that eligible voters could be incorrectly flagged.
The Trump administration had expanded the use of SAVE as part of efforts to verify voter citizenship status through federal data. Officials supporting the program said it was intended to help identify individuals who were not eligible to vote and improve election administration. The Department of Homeland Security defended the system and said it would continue to support the administration’s election-related policies, according to reports.
The lawsuit was brought by voting rights and privacy advocacy groups, including the League of Women Voters, which argued that the revised database process exceeded federal authority and threatened privacy protections. The groups said the system could produce inaccurate results, including incorrectly identifying some lawful voters as noncitizens.
In her ruling, Sooknanan said the government’s changes to the database raised concerns about the handling of personal information. “All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” she wrote in the decision, according to reports.
The case centered on changes to SAVE that allowed broader searches of government records for citizenship verification purposes. Court filings cited by news organizations said the system’s expanded use involved information from federal databases and raised questions about compliance with privacy laws.
The ruling is one of several legal challenges involving the Trump administration’s election-related policies. Federal courts have considered disputes over efforts to obtain voter information from states and expand federal involvement in election verification.
The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security had not announced a final decision on whether they would appeal the ruling as of the latest reports. The status of any future use of the modified SAVE system depends on further court proceedings and government actions.
