{"id":28808,"date":"2026-09-26T00:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T00:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=28808"},"modified":"2026-09-26T00:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T00:34:00","slug":"supreme-court-allows-trump-administration-to-use-controversial-voter-citizenship-database-before-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=28808","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use controversial voter citizenship database before midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-134495300,imgsize-705006,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/donald-trump-6.jpg\" alt=\"Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use controversial voter citizenship database before midterms\" title=\"Trump\u2019s voter citizenship push gets Supreme Court backing, mass purges still barred\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Trump\u2019s voter citizenship push gets Supreme Court backing, mass purges still barred\">Trump\u2019s voter citizenship push gets Supreme Court backing, mass purges still barred<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to use a controversial federal database to help states check the citizenship status of registered voters, handing President Donald Trump a victory in his broader effort to increase federal involvement in election administration ahead of the midterm elections.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"2\"\/>The court&#8217;s conservative majority lifted restrictions on the Trump administration&#8217;s use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) programme, which allows officials to verify citizenship and immigration information.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>Critics have questioned the reliability of the data, warning that the system could result in US citizens being wrongly flagged or removed from voter rolls.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>The ruling came after a federal judge in June found the expanded use of the system illegal and said it violated Americans&#8217; privacy rights. <!-- -->A federal appeals court had allowed that ruling to remain in place before the Supreme Court intervened.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Supreme Court limits scope of voter-roll purges<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"13\"\/>While allowing the administration to use the database, the Supreme Court said the National Voter Registration Act prohibits broad voter-roll purges in the weeks immediately before an election.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/>The restriction limits the &#8220;potential impact&#8221; of Friday&#8217;s decision ahead of the midterm elections.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>States can, however, continue checking the citizenship status of individual voters using information obtained through the federal system.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>The three liberal-leaning justices dissented from the decision.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned that the use of the system could result in eligible voters losing their voting rights.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>&#8220;The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the non-existent harm that the government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,&#8221; she wrote.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>What is the SAVE programme?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/>The Department of Homeland Security&#8217;s SAVE programme was created in 1986 to help government officials verify the citizenship or immigration status of people applying for public benefits.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"31\"\/>The Trump administration expanded the system&#8217;s capabilities last year, allowing officials to conduct bulk searches using sensitive information from Social Security records.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"33\"\/>The administration has argued that the system is lawful and necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/>The Supreme Court ruled that a 1996 law allows the Department of Homeland Security to obtain citizenship and immigration information from federal agencies and &#8220;has an obligation to respond&#8221; to states seeking such information.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/>Participation in the SAVE programme by individual states remains voluntary.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"40\"\/>The court also said the earlier judicial order &#8220;prevents the federal government from using the programme it believes is best suited to the task&#8221;.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"43\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Judge had ruled expanded system violated privacy rights<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"45\"\/>In June, US District Judge Sparkle L Soonnan, a Biden appointee, ruled against the administration&#8217;s expanded use of the system.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"47\"\/>Soonnan said the revamped programme showed that the federal government &#8220;knowingly trampled on the privacy rights&#8221; of US citizens &#8220;in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote&#8221;.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"49\"\/>A federal appeals court allowed her ruling to stand before the Supreme Court overturned the restrictions on Friday.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"52\"\/>The case has drawn opposition from voting rights organisations, which argue that errors in federal citizenship data could lead to eligible voters being wrongly targeted.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"54\"\/>The League of Women Voters, the lead plaintiff in the case, called the ruling &#8220;profoundly disappointing&#8221;.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"56\"\/>&#8220;&#8230;it puts millions of Americans at risk of being unlawfully targeted by the administration&#8217;s unreliable voter purge database weeks before the midterm elections,&#8221; the organisation said in a statement.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"59\"\/>&#8220;We will be doing everything in our power to protect Americans&#8217; voting and privacy rights by ensuring that the district court decision stands,&#8221; it said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"61\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Critics point to errors in voter citizenship checks<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"63\"\/>A total of 27 states currently use the SAVE system to check voter citizenship, according to the report.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"65\"\/>Critics have pointed to cases where the system has produced incorrect results.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"67\"\/>In Travis County, Texas, officials found that at least 10% of nearly 100 voters identified as non-citizens were actually US citizens, according to US media reports. <!-- -->Officials also indicated that the proportion could have been higher.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"71\"\/>Since Texas began checking its voter rolls through SAVE last year, only three non-citizen voters have been charged with illegally voting in the state.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"73\"\/>The examples have fuelled concerns among voting rights groups about the reliability of citizenship data and the potential consequences of acting on inaccurate records.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"75\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Georgia says safeguards are in place<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"77\"\/>Some states, including Georgia, have worked with the federal government on the SAVE programme.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"80\"\/>Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has publicly supported his office&#8217;s work with the system and offered recommendations for improving it.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"82\"\/>Raffensperger told the BBC that his office thoroughly reviewed government-provided information before determining whether people flagged by the system were non-citizens.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"84\"\/>He said officials also interviewed some of the voters in question to verify the information.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"87\"\/>&#8220;There&#8217;s always guardrails in place, to make sure that we never denied the right to vote,&#8221; Raffensperger said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"89\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Trump&#8217;s broader push to change US election rules<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"91\"\/>The Supreme Court ruling comes as the Trump administration pursues broader changes to the US electoral system.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"93\"\/>Since returning to the White House in January last year, Trump has sought changes involving voter eligibility and election procedures, including an effort to restrict the use of mail-in ballots that was rejected by the Supreme Court.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"97\"\/>States have also carried out voter-roll reviews.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"99\"\/>In 2024, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that 1,930 people with a &#8220;voter history&#8221; had been removed from the state&#8217;s electoral rolls out of nearly 18 million registered voters.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"101\"\/>The figure was far below the hundreds of thousands of non-citizen voters that Trump and the Department of Homeland Security have previously suggested could be present on voter rolls.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"103\"\/>Friday&#8217;s ruling allows the federal government to continue using the SAVE system for citizenship checks, while existing federal restrictions on broad voter-roll removals close to elections remain in place.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/us\/supreme-court-allows-trump-administration-to-use-controversial-voter-citizenship-database-before-midterms\/articleshow\/134495290.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump\u2019s voter citizenship push gets Supreme Court backing, mass purges still barred The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to use a controversial federal database to help states check the citizenship status of registered voters, handing President Donald Trump a victory in his broader effort to increase federal involvement in election administration 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voter citizenship push gets Supreme Court backing, mass purges still barred The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to use a controversial federal database to help states check the citizenship status of registered voters, handing President Donald Trump a victory in his broader effort to increase federal involvement in election administration [&hellip;]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 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