Supreme Court Revives Trump Administration’s Controversial Voter Verification Database

The US Supreme Court on Friday revived an expanded immigration database that the administration of President Donald Trump says is designed to prevent noncitizens from voting, though critics warn that the move risks disenfranchising eligible voters.

The justices granted a request from the Justice Department to halt a lower court’s order, which would have barred state officials from using Social Security numbers and other personal data to conduct broad checks on the citizenship of registered voters against federal databases.

This data-sharing agreement represents one of several steps the federal government has taken to expand its role in election administration ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Under the US Constitution, individual states hold the primary authority to oversee and administer elections.

The Department of Homeland Security overhauled a federal database known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) last year. Originally designed to verify citizenship and immigration status, the updated system allows for bulk searches and queries using Social Security numbers.

Several Republican-led states have already cross-referenced their voter rolls with this database, leading to the cancellation of registrations for some voters flagged as potential noncitizens.

Critics argue that these actions are motivated less by a genuine concern for election security and more by an effort to gain a political advantage by narrowing the electorate, potentially disenfranchising eligible voters who tend to lean Democratic.

In June, US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, DC, blocked the revamped database, describing it as hastily assembled and built on unreliable citizenship data. “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,” Sooknanan wrote. “This court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to suspend Sooknanan’s ruling in a 2-1 decision on September 4, prompting the administration to escalate the matter to the Supreme Court.

In their Supreme Court filing, Justice Department lawyers labeled the lower court’s order “indefensible,” arguing that it threatens the integrity of the upcoming midterm elections.

False Claims, Real Fears

Trump has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, including following his 2020 election loss to former Democratic President Joe Biden.

According to data from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that tracks alleged voter fraud, instances of noncitizen voting are extremely rare, with most cases involving clerical errors rather than intentional fraud.

A 2024 analysis of the Heritage Foundation’s data by the American Immigration Council revealed that the group had documented just 68 cases of proven noncitizen voting since 2000, representing less than 0.0001% of total votes cast. The foundation’s database has since expanded, adding 21 more cases.

The overall error rate of the modified system remains unknown, as neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the Justice Department has disclosed this information upon request.

In their Supreme Court filing, voter advocacy groups cited a Travis County, Texas, election official who stated that 25% of the system’s noncitizen matches involved individuals who had already proven their US citizenship. They also referenced news reports showing that at least 81% of the system’s responses in St. Louis County, Missouri, were erroneous.

The League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a lawsuit in September 2025 to block the modified system, arguing that the overhaul violated federal privacy laws and other US regulations.

Texas, which intervened in the case to support the administration, has disputed claims regarding the system’s unreliability.

Due to separate ongoing litigation in Florida, the administration has been permitted to continue using the modified SAVE system in the Republican-led states of Florida, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

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