D.C. Judge Rejects DHS Request to Suspend SAVE Citizenship Database Shutdown

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., refused the Department of Homeland Security’s request to stay an order that halts the use of a modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system for confirming registered voters’ citizenship. The decision, issued by District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, leaves in place the injunction she issued in June while the D.C. Circuit Court reviews DHS’s appeal.

Judge Sooknanan noted that the agency failed to inform her of a related case in Florida, where a separate federal judge ordered DHS to allow four states—Florida, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio—to resume using SAVE under a November 2025 settlement agreement. She said the conflicting orders created legal uncertainty and that the Florida consent decree applies only to the states party to that case.

The ruling also maintains a block on DHS adding Social Security Administration data to the SAVE database. In her opinion, DHS attorneys argued that the D.C. court’s order conflicted with the Florida agreement, but the judge highlighted that the consent decree was filed after the plaintiffs initiated the current action.

Judge Sooknanan criticized the Florida judge’s handling of the case, suggesting errors that could be corrected later, and pointed out that the Florida court proceeded without adverse briefing from other potentially affected states, describing the approach as fundamentally unsound.