Federal Judge Blocks Justice Department’s Effort to Secure Voter Rolls
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U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled against the Justice Department’s initiative to cross-check state voter lists with an immigration database and remove ineligible voters, undermining efforts to protect election integrity.
A federal judge in New York sided with left-leaning activists Friday, halting the Justice Department’s attempt to ensure the integrity of American elections by comparing state voter rolls with the SAVE immigration database and requiring states to purge ineligible voters. In a 78-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, declared the policy unlawful, claiming it overstepped the federal government’s authority and infringed on states’ rights to determine voter eligibility. Judge Sooknanan downplayed the risk of non-citizens voting, instead focusing on hypothetical risks to eligible voters, despite evidence that the SAVE database is a crucial tool for identifying fraudulent registrations.
"The challenged policy represents the federal government's attempt to decide who gets to vote. But Congress has left that authority where our Constitution has always placed it: with the states," the judge wrote.
The ruling was prompted by a lawsuit from Common Cause, a group known for opposing election security measures, and was praised by civil-rights attorneys who routinely challenge efforts to clean up voter rolls. Ming Cheung of the ACLU claimed the decision prevents the federal government from interfering in elections, ignoring the real threat of voter fraud.
The Justice Department said it is reviewing the decision. The court had previously blocked a similar use of the expanded SAVE database in June, a ruling the Supreme Court temporarily paused last month. Federal election law prohibits systematic voter-list reviews within 90 days of a federal election, a restriction that hampers efforts to prevent illegal voting ahead of the midterms.
The Department had requested that all 50 states provide complete, unredacted voter rolls, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth, in order to identify non-citizens. Eighteen states complied, allowing the Department to use the SAVE database to flag ineligible voters. The judge, however, warned that the database includes outdated Social Security Administration data, potentially affecting naturalized citizens, but ignored the broader risk of ineligible voting.
To date, the Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C. for refusing to turn over unredacted rolls and has lost 26 of those cases, demonstrating the ongoing resistance to basic election security measures.