The emergency order allows states to use the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, known as SAVE.
The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to use its revamped federal voter eligibility database, temporarily lifting a lower-court block ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The emergency order allows states to use the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, known as SAVE, to help verify whether people on their voter rolls are eligible to vote. The program’s use is voluntary.
The ruling does not resolve whether the expanded database is legal. Instead, it pauses a June decision from U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan that struck down the changes while the administration’s appeal moves forward.
The court’s majority said the administration is likely to prevail on its argument that federal law allows DHS to obtain citizenship and immigration information from other federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, and requires the government to respond to state and local officials seeking to verify a person’s citizenship status.
“The order below prevents the Federal Government from using the program it believes is best suited to the task,” the unsigned opinion said.
Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Jackson warned that the expanded database could wrongly flag lawful voters and force them to take extra steps to keep their registrations.
The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the Government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” Jackson wrote.
The immediate impact before the midterms may be limited. Federal law generally bars states from completing systematic voter-roll removals within 90 days of a federal election, though the court said states may still conduct individualized eligibility inquiries during that period.
The justices did not decide whether that 90-day provision also prevents states from removing alleged noncitizens from voter rolls in the weeks before an election. The court said it will consider that question separately in another pending case.
SAVE was created to help government agencies verify citizenship and immigration status for public-benefit eligibility. States have used it for voter-verification purposes since 2005, but the Trump administration expanded the system last year by linking it with Social Security records and allowing bulk searches using full or partial Social Security numbers.
At least 67 million voter registrations have been scanned through the expanded program, according to court filings.
The ruling is a temporary victory for Trump’s broader push to reshape election rules during his second term. Several of those efforts have been blocked in court, with judges noting that the Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — primary authority over elections.
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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
