Appeals Court Rejects Trump Bid to Use Immigration Database for Voter Checks

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower judge’s ban on the Trump administration using an immigration database to ensure the integrity and accuracy of state voter rolls.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2–1 on Sept. 4 to reject the federal government’s bid to lift a ban on using the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, otherwise known as SAVE, for purposes of voter roll maintenance.

The decision was issued about two months ahead of the midterm elections in November, as Republican lawmakers vie to retain their slim majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, joined by Judge Robert Wilkins in the majority ruling, concurred with the previous judge’s reasoning to block use of the SAVE system, writing that it would violate several privacy laws by disclosing millions of individuals’ Social Security numbers, citizenship status, and other sensitive data.

Srinivasan and Wilkins also reasoned that sharing Social Security information of individuals with the DHS might produce inaccurate data.

For example, two plaintiffs in the case, referred to as Jane Doe 4 and 6, applied for Social Security numbers while they were still noncitizens. They were later naturalized, but according to the judges’ ruling, they claim the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) data still lists them as noncitizens.

Jane Doe 6 attempted to update her SSA data but was unsuccessful, the Sept. 4 ruling said.

“If a person needs to prove their citizenship to remain registered to vote or if they are removed from the registration rolls, they suffer a cognizable injury,” the federal appeals judges wrote, adding that in some instances, verified voters could have their registrations canceled.

Judge Gregory Katsas dissented in the Sept. 4 ruling, beginning his opinion by writing that states have obtained citizenship and immigration data from DHS for decades to assess eligibility for public benefits and voting.

Before President Donald Trump ordered the expansion of the SAVE system in 2025, states could submit individual inquiries to Homeland Security for data. The Trump administration implemented changes to allow bulk queries and internal agency use of Social Security numbers and data sharing between agencies to verify accurate voter rolls, Katsas said.

A voting-rights organization and privacy group sued over those changes to the SAVE system, and Katsas wrote they would experience “relatively little harm” if a stay was granted in favor of the Trump administration.

“Individuals who were issued SSNs before they became citizens, but who have not updated the SSA with their citizenship status, will not lose the right to vote,” Katsas dissented. “Instead, they will simply have to provide proof of citizenship to remain on the voter rolls of state or local governments.”

He also called the alleged privacy harms “modest.” At worst, Katsas wrote, an individuals’ data will be disclosed to one more federal agency.

“Even if the public interest in using SSNs for modified SAVE were undercut by privacy considerations, the public interest at a minimum would still favor allowing states to do bulk searches without SSNs, which the district court has also effectively enjoined,” Katsas wrote.

District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan for the D.C. District Court issued that first enjoinment on June 22. She wrote a critical 75-page order, claiming the Trump administration “knowingly trampled” on privacy rights of Americans and threatened the right to vote.

Lawyers for the federal government had cited multiple federal immigration laws as authority for the modification of the SAVE system, but Sooknanan shot all those arguments down.

Neither the White House, DHS, nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.