In win for Trump, U.S. Supreme Court lets states use revamped voter verification system

The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November's elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against non-citizen voting.

Lower-court judge had blocked the use of the tool, saying it violated Americans' privacy rights

The Associated Press

· Posted: Sep 25, 2026 1:16 PM EDT | Last Updated: 17 minutes ago

Listen to this article

Estimated 3 minutes

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November's elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against non-citizen voting.

The court's three liberal-leaning justices publicly dissented from the decision.

The emergency order allows states, for now, to use the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, in their efforts to verify the eligibility of voters on their rolls. But because existing law blocks most states from systematically purging voters from their rolls within 90 days of an election, the immediate impact on the upcoming midterms is likely limited.

States' use of the SAVE program is voluntary.

The court's order puts on hold a federal judge's June ruling that had deemed the Republican administration's recently revamped version of SAVE illegal. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan had blocked the use of the tool, saying it violated Americans' privacy rights and could result in voters being wrongly removed from the rolls.

A federal appeals court declined to pause Sooknanan's ruling, prompting the administration's appeal to the Supreme Court.

• CBC Explains

  Trump's crusade against voting by mail: what you need to know

• Trump removes remaining heads of Election Assistance Commission

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to non-citizens. The Trump administration last year moved to significantly expand its search abilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls.

Some citizens wrongly flagged

Some registrants have already been wrongly flagged. In Travis County, Texas, for example, officials said they investigated 97 voters flagged by SAVE as apparent non-citizens and found that at least 10 per cent of them — and likely up to 21 per cent — were U.S. citizens. The county urged the Supreme Court to reject the administration's appeal, while the state of Texas submitted its own brief defending the database.

Even though the use of the SAVE program has been blocked for months, the administration said in court filings that DHS officials have continued using Social Security Administration data "in certain cases to verify information and help determine whether illegal voting may have occurred."

WATCH | Trump has pushed for federal control of state voting:

Trump suggests federal Republicans intervene in state elections

February 3|

Duration

2:09

U.S. President Donald Trump has doubled down on his suggestion that federal Republicans should take over voting in some states, sparking outrage from Democrats who called the idea 'unconstitutional.'

DHS in August launched its own investigation to find non-citizen voters on state rolls, according to a federal whistleblower statement that said the effort is rushed, filled with errors and potentially violates state laws. DHS has defended that investigation as being conducted "diligently and professionally."

The effort to create a national voter list is among numerous steps Trump has taken during his second term to try to overhaul the way elections are run. Most of those steps have been blocked by various courts, in part because the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules but provides no such power to the president. In mid-September, the Supreme Court rejected a bid from Trump to restrict mail ballot procedures before the midterms.

Research shows that non-citizen voting, which is already illegal and punishable as a potential felony that could lead to deportation, is exceptionally rare. But Trump has remained fixated on the idea that massive numbers of non-citizens are voting in U.S. races.