The 6-3 order lifts a lower-court block on the expanded SAVE system while the legal challenge continues.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to resume use of an expanded federal immigration database to help state and local election officials check the citizenship status of registered voters and people seeking to register.
What the Court did
In Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters, the Court granted the administration’s request to stay a lower-court order that had blocked the modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, known as SAVE.
The expanded system links Department of Homeland Security records with Social Security Administration data and allows election officials to run citizenship checks using identifying information that can include full or partial Social Security numbers. The system also permits bulk searches involving multiple individuals.
The Court said federal law likely authorizes DHS to request and receive citizenship and immigration-status information from other government agencies. The majority also said the federal government has an obligation to respond when state and local officials seek to verify a voter’s citizenship status.
The case is not over
Friday’s order does not finally resolve the underlying lawsuit. The stay remains in place while the case continues through the appeals process and, potentially, returns to the Supreme Court for full review.
The lower court had found that the expanded SAVE program violated federal privacy and administrative-law protections. The Supreme Court majority said those claims are likely to fail because federal immigration law appears to authorize the information sharing at issue.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The dissent argued that the expanded system raises privacy concerns and could burden eligible voters whose federal records do not accurately reflect their citizenship status, including some naturalized citizens.
Limits before the midterms
The Court noted that federal law generally bars states from carrying out systematic voter-roll removal programs within 90 days of a federal election. The justices said that restriction limits the immediate impact of the ruling, but individualized citizenship inquiries may still occur during that period.
A separate Supreme Court case is expected to address how the 90-day rule applies when states seek to remove voters they believe are not U.S. citizens.
