SCOTUS allows Trump admin. to use the SAVE program to verify citizenship of voters

The United States Supreme Court has temporarily allowed the federal government to use the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify voter eligibility, granting President Donald Trump a victory after a district judge blocked its use.

The decision in Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters came on Friday, allowing government agencies to utilize the program following a DHS expansion that added information from Social Security Administration (SSA) records, including Social Security numbers, and to allow states to conduct bulk searches in addition to individual searches.

The League of Women Voters sued, arguing that the system violated the Social Security Act’s confidentiality protections.

A federal district court agreed with the challengers’ request to vacate the modified SAVE program, rejecting the government’s request to put that ruling on hold while it appealed. It also rejected the government’s initial request for a stay.

The Supreme Court’s order is not a final decision on the underlying lawsuit. Instead, it grants a temporary stay to the federal government, blocking the district court’s order while the Trump administration’s appeal proceeds.

“The order below prevents the Federal Government from using the program it believes is best suited to the task,” the majority wrote in the unsigned order.

The majority pointed to 8 U.S. Code 1373, which prohibits government entities from restricting the DHS from obtaining immigration status information and likely gives the DHS the authority to request and receive SSA information.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

 

“The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the Government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” Jackson wrote.

DHS General Counsel James Percival responded to the high court’s decision in an X post on Friday.

“Yes, you read that right. We had to file an emergency petition in the Supreme Court just so we could use government data to help states stop noncitizens from illegally voting,” said Percival.

Credit:  https://www.oann.com/