Supreme Court allows Trump to use SAVE database to check voter citizenship
The US Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to utilize the SAVE database to verify voter citizenship status, despite lower court rulings that the system was illegal. While the court limited broad purges of voter rolls, it permits states to check individual voter eligibility.
Why it matters
The ruling impacts electoral integrity and voting rights, highlighting the ongoing tension between federal security measures and the potential for disenfranchising eligible voters.
Share Save Add as preferred on Google Bernd Debusmann Jr White House reporter Getty Images The US Supreme Court has lifted restrictions on the Trump administration to use a controversial federal database that uses citizenship information and other sensitive data to identify voters suspected of being non-citizens.
Critics have questioned the reliability of the data, warning it could result in US citizens being wrongly removed from electoral rolls.
In June, a federal judge ruled that the system was illegal and violated the privacy rights of Americans.
But the top court's conservative majority ruled that the National Voter Registration Act prohibits broad purges of voter rolls in the weeks before an election, which limits any "potential impact" of the decision ahead of the midterms.
But states can still check the citizenship of individual voters.
The three liberal-leaning justices on the Supreme Court dissented from the majority decision.
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