US Supreme Court Allows States to Use Federal Database for Voter Citizenship Checks

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may use the federal SAVE database to verify voter citizenship, reversing earlier lower court decisions that found the database was inaccurate and risked disenfranchising eligible voters. The majority opinion stated that the federal government has an obligation to respond to state and local election officials seeking citizenship verification, and that blocking this access interfered with election administration ahead of the midterms.

The SAVE database was originally built by the Department of Homeland Security to assess immigration benefit eligibility, but it was repurposed under the Trump administration for voter citizenship screening. Voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, had sued, arguing that combining SAVE data with Social Security records breached confidentiality protections under the Social Security Act, Privacy Act and Administrative Procedures Act.

While the ruling permits states to adopt the database, it does not require them to. Most states have resisted federal efforts to centralise or verify voter data, and the federal government has lost numerous related court cases. Three justices dissented, criticising the majority for ruling on unresolved statutory questions without full briefing or oral argument.