The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue using an expanded version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) data system to identify potential noncitizens on state voter rolls. The decision overturned a federal judge’s June order that had halted the program.
The Department of Homeland Security overhauled SAVE last year by linking it to Social Security Administration records, which encompass most Americans, and enabled bulk queries of the system. States were encouraged to upload their entire voter rolls to verify registrants were U.S. citizens. According to the federal government’s filings, the updated SAVE has verified more than 65 million voters across 26 states since May 2025 and flagged 28,635 as potential noncitizens.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked the modified system in June, ruling that its aggregation and disclosure of sensitive data violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedures Act. The Supreme Court’s majority stated that the lower court order prevented the federal government from conducting individualized inquiries permitted under federal law during the 90-day election period. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warning of risks to recently naturalized citizens being removed from voter rolls.
A coalition of organizations, including the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, challenged the overhaul, arguing that Congress did not authorize creation of a master database of U.S. citizens and that the system contains errors affecting voting rights. They stated the government had not released the system’s error rate. The groups indicated litigation would continue in the D.C. district court.
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