A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's expanded use of a data tool meant to verify voter eligibility. The ruling came Monday after states ran tens of millions of voter records through the system.
U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued the 75-page decision on June 22, finding that the overhauled SAVE tool violated the Privacy Act, the Social Security Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The judge wrote that federal agencies had "knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote."
The system, run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was expanded last year with help from the Department of Homeland Security and DOGE. It allowed bulk checks of voter rolls against citizenship and Social Security records. More than 60 million voter records were processed, and some U.S. citizens were incorrectly flagged as potential noncitizens.
The ruling bars further use of the expanded tool for voter checks but leaves the original SAVE program intact for verifying eligibility for government benefits. The Department of Homeland Security may appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
James Percival, general counsel at DHS, criticized the decision on X, saying it prevented the agency from addressing "alien voting." Plaintiffs including the League of Women Voters welcomed the outcome as a victory for voter privacy.
