Federal Judge Bars Use of Revamped SAVE Database for Voter Citizenship Checks
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U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ruled that the upgraded Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program violates privacy statutes and cannot be used to verify voter citizenship.
A federal judge on Monday ordered that the recently upgraded Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which state election officials have used to identify non-citizen voters, be halted. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan found that the program aggregates personal data in a manner that breaches congressional privacy protections and risks wrongful removal of eligible voters from the rolls.
"All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote," the judge wrote in her decision. The ruling follows a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and other plaintiffs who argued that the revamped SAVE system violates privacy and voting-rights laws. The plaintiffs also said the federal government lacked authority to share sensitive personal information across agencies without statutory authorization. Attorney Nikhel Sus, representing the plaintiffs, called the decision “an across-the-board victory” and warned that naturalized citizens are especially vulnerable to erroneous purges. Legal scholars cited the case as confirming that an executive order cannot override existing federal privacy statutes. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees SAVE, responded on social media by criticizing the decision, while the Justice Department declined to comment. The judge noted that the updated system had already led some states to remove citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate data, reinforcing concerns that the database could be used to target lawful voters. The SAVE program, originally created to help agencies prevent benefits from being issued to non-citizens, was expanded in 2025 to allow bulk searches using names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. At least 25 states had employed the tool since its expansion, scanning more than 67 million voter registrations. The court’s order now leaves the future of the federal voter-verification effort uncertain.