Supreme Court allows Trump to use controversial database to check voter citizenship

September 25, 2026

The Supreme Court has overturned lower court rulings and allowed the Trump administration to use a federal database called SAVE to verify voter citizenship, despite concerns about its accuracy and potential violation of privacy rights. Originally created in 1986 for checking eligibility for public benefits, the system was expanded in recent years to perform bulk searches using Social Security data, which a federal judge had ruled illegal in June. While the Court's conservative majority noted that federal law prohibits mass voter purges close to elections, individual voter citizenship checks can still proceed, prompting dissent from liberal justices who worry about eligible voters being wrongly disenfranchised.

Who is affected

US citizens potentially wrongly identified as non-citizens in the database
Eligible voters in the 27 states using the SAVE system
Voting rights organizations, specifically the League of Women Voters (lead plaintiff)
State election officials using the system (including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger)
Non-citizen voters charged with illegal voting
The Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security
Federal agencies required to respond to citizenship data requests

What action is being taken

The Supreme Court is lifting restrictions on the Trump administration's use of the SAVE database
States are checking the citizenship of individual voters using the system
Georgia officials are vetting government-provided data and interviewing flagged voters
The League of Women Voters is working to ensure the district court decision stands and protect voting and privacy rights

Why it matters

This ruling is significant because it directly impacts the fundamental right to vote and the privacy protections of American citizens. The decision allows continued use of a database that has documented accuracy problems—such as the Travis County, Texas case where at least 10% of those flagged as non-citizens were actually US citizens—potentially leading to eligible voters being removed from rolls or having their voting rights burdened. The controversy also highlights the tension between election security concerns and voter access, with actual cases of non-citizen voting proving extremely rare (only three charged in Texas) compared to the millions of registered voters potentially affected by database errors.

What's next

No explicit next steps stated in the article

Read full article from source: BBC