WASHINGTON – A federal judge has struck down a recently upgraded federal verification system that has played a central role in the Trump administration’s election integrity efforts, ruling that the program violates privacy protections and can no longer be used.
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The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program was designed to help states verify the citizenship and immigration status of people applying for government benefits. But some state and local governments also use it to verify citizenship for voting.
Judge blocks use of database to check citizenship
What they’re saying:
U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ruled Monday in favor of voting rights and advocacy organizations that challenged changes made to the SAVE program. The groups argued that the revamped system aggregated sensitive personal information belonging to millions of Americans, creating the risk that eligible voters could be mistakenly removed from voter registration rolls.
US President Donald Trump speaks during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, June 22, 2026. (Credit: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“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 said in an order explaining the decision. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
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Sooknanan further concluded that Congress had specifically barred the creation of such centralized databases and found that the agencies responsible for developing the updated SAVE system were aware that it conflicted with those legal protections.
Ruling marks setback for Trump administration
Big picture view:
The ruling marks a setback for President Donald Trump’s broader push to use federal resources to help states identify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
The modified SAVE database had been a cornerstone of an election-related executive order signed by Trump earlier this year. With the court’s decision, the future of the program remains uncertain.
The other side:
“It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” James Percival, general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, said of the ruling in a social media post.
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