Federal Judge Bars Use Of Expanded SAVE Citizenship Database For Voter Roll Screening
A federal judge barred states from using an expanded federal citizenship database built on the SAVE system to screen voters or purge voter rolls on Monday, June 22, 2026.[1]
Judge Sooknanan issued the ruling in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and ordered states to stop bulk checks that had flagged eligible U.S. citizens while the case proceeds.[1]
The decision immediately affects at least two dozen states that had begun bulk-checking registrations through the modified SAVE tool.[1] State election officials said they must halt or redesign list-maintenance programs built around the expanded access to the database.[1] Reporting and court filings described the ruling as the first major judicial limit on President Trump's March 31, 2026 Executive Order 14399 on voter list checks.[1]
In May 2025, the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration signed a data-sharing agreement that let SAVE access Social Security records and perform bulk searches. Work to expand SAVE into a centralized citizenship database continued into 2026. The March 31 executive order directed agencies to compile and send lists of confirmed citizens to states and to give states no-cost access for voter verification. The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and five individuals sued in September 2025, saying the program violated the Privacy Act, the Social Security Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
Analyses of SAVE queries on millions of voter records from 2025 to 2026 returned non-U.S. citizen results in about 0.04% of cases. In multiple states, officials documented that more than 5 percent of records flagged as potential noncitizens were confirmed U.S. citizens, and some counties reported over half of flags were errors.
The mainstream summary does not mention the significant error rate associated with the expanded SAVE system, where analyses revealed that over 5% of flagged records were confirmed U.S. citizens, with some counties reporting even higher error rates. This raises concerns about the reliability of the database for voter roll maintenance, which the summary downplays by focusing solely on the judicial ruling. Reports indicate that analyses of SAVE queries returned non-U.S. citizen results in approximately 0.04% of cases, suggesting that the system may not be effectively identifying noncitizens while erroneously flagging eligible voters. This context is crucial, as it highlights the potential for disenfranchisement among citizens rather than merely framing the ruling as a legal barrier to federal oversight of voter rolls.
Furthermore, the summary does not address the broader implications of the ruling, including the ongoing tensions between state and federal authorities regarding election administration. The Congressional Research Service has noted that recent legislative efforts reflect a push for expanded federal data-sharing mandates, indicating that this ruling may be part of a larger conflict over how citizenship verification is handled in elections. The emphasis on privacy violations in the judge's decision, as highlighted by various commentators, further complicates the narrative by suggesting that the ruling is not just about voter verification but also about safeguarding personal data against government overreach.[2][3][4][5][6]
Show source details & analysis (2 sources)
📊 Relevant Data
Analyses of SAVE queries on millions of voter records have returned non-U.S. citizen results in approximately 0.04% of cases.
What Adding Motor Vehicle Data to USCIS's SAVE System Means for Election Administration — Bipartisan Policy Center
Prior to the 2025 expansions enabling bulk checks, fewer than a dozen states had agreements to use the SAVE system for voter eligibility verification.
What Is the SAVE System? — Campaign Legal Center
In multiple states using the expanded SAVE system, officials documented that more than 5% of records flagged as potential noncitizens were confirmed U.S. citizens, with some counties reporting over half of flags as errors.
SAVE tool keeps mistakenly flagging voters as noncitizens — Texas Tribune
📌 Key Facts
- On Monday, June 22, 2026, Judge Sooknanan's ruling barred states from using the expanded SAVE-based citizenship data tool to screen voters or purge voter rolls.
- The decision directly affects current practices in at least two dozen states that had begun bulk-checking voter registrations through the modified SAVE system.
- The report describes instances in which eligible U.S. citizens were flagged as potential noncitizens by the updated database and faced removal from voter rolls before the ruling.
- State election officials said they must now halt or redesign ongoing list-maintenance programs built around the expanded SAVE access.
- The ruling is described as the first major court decision limiting implementation of Executive Order 14399, President Trump’s March 31, 2026 order on voter list checks.
📰 Source Timeline (2)
Follow how coverage of this story developed over time
- Article underscores that Judge Sooknanan's June 22, 2026 ruling means states cannot use the expanded SAVE-based citizenship data tool to screen voters or purge voter rolls.
- It details how the decision directly affects current practices in at least two dozen states that had begun bulk-checking voter registrations through the modified SAVE system.
- The story highlights specific instances where eligible U.S. citizens were flagged as potential noncitizens by the updated database and faced removal from voter rolls before the ruling.
- It adds reaction from state election officials who say they must now halt or redesign ongoing list-maintenance programs built around the expanded SAVE access.
- The report further describes the ruling as the first major court decision limiting implementation of President Trump’s March 31, 2026 Executive Order 14399 on voter list checks.