Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow use of database to check voters’ citizenship

Washington — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in a lawsuit and allow the use of a controversial data system to review state voter rolls heading into the midterm elections.

In June, a federal judge ruled the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it created a centralized database, known as “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements,” or SAVE, that contains Americans’ private information. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said the database was used by some states to incorrectly remove U.S. citizens from their voter rolls. 

The system was part of President Trump’s government-wide push to find proof of widespread instances of noncitizens voting in federal elections, which have largely been debunked and shown to be very rare.

Sooknanan said in her ruling that the “federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” by attempting to implement the SAVE system. Sooknanan found that the administration violated three different federal laws by attempting to implement the SAVE system. 

Over the weekend, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the Trump administration’s request to stay the district court’s block on the SAVE database.

In a new filing Tuesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer called Sooknanan’s ruling “indefensible” and said it “threatens the integrity of upcoming elections.” He also said the judge exceeded her authority and that the voting rights groups that brought the initial lawsuit did not have proper legal standing to sue. Sauer asked the justices to lift Sooknanan’s stay and allow the use of the SAVE system.

“SAVE does not disqualify any voter; instead, it merely notifies the States whether the federal government can confirm citizenship,” Sauer wrote. “Thus, any voter injury is caused by the States, not by the federal government, and would not be redressed by the relief the court entered against the federal government.”

The new request comes after the Trump administration again asked the Supreme Court to reinstate new Postal Service rules for mail voting in the upcoming midterms. 

The SAVE database was created by several federal agencies in response to an executive order signed by Mr. Trump last year that sought to impose a new proof-of-citizenship requirement for those registering to vote. The order directed the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to create a database that would effectively allow state and local officials to verify citizenship or immigration status of individuals trying to register to vote.

The executive order drew several legal challenges, and key provisions have been blocked.

Still, the directive triggered the overhaul of the existing SAVE system. It was modified to include the records of natural-born citizens; to access records from the SSA, including Social Security numbers; and to permit bulk searches of records by entities that use the database.