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🇺🇸 United States /Crime & Justice

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow use of citizenship database

From CBS News · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower-court block on the SAVE database, which it wants states to use when reviewing voter rolls before the midterm elections.
  • A federal judge ruled that the administration unlawfully created the system and said it had contributed to U.S. citizens being incorrectly removed from voter rolls.
  • Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the ruling indefensible and argued that SAVE only reports whether citizenship can be confirmed, leaving any voter injury to the states.

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to let it use a controversial citizenship database to review state voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections, after lower courts blocked the system.

The database, known as Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, contains private information about Americans. In June, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled that the administration acted unlawfully when it created and attempted to implement the centralized system. She said some states had used it to incorrectly remove U.S. citizens from voter rolls.

The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.

· Sparkle SooknananThe federal judge criticized the administration’s creation and attempted implementation of the SAVE system.

Sooknanan also found that the administration violated three federal laws. In her ruling, she wrote that the “federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.” Over the weekend, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the administration’s request to pause the district court’s block.

Indefensible

· D. John SauerThe solicitor general’s characterization of the judge’s ruling in the administration’s Supreme Court filing.

In a filing on Tuesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer called Sooknanan’s decision “indefensible” and said it “threatens the integrity of upcoming elections.” He argued that the judge exceeded her authority and that the voting-rights groups that brought the case lacked legal standing. Sauer asked the justices to lift the stay and allow the system’s use.

“SAVE does not disqualify any voter; instead, it merely notifies the States whether the federal government can confirm citizenship,” Sauer wrote. “Thus, any voter injury is caused by the States, not by the federal government, and would not be redressed by the relief the court entered against the federal government.”

Threatens the integrity of upcoming elections.

· D. John SauerSauer argued that the lower-court ruling could undermine election administration.

The filing follows another administration request asking the Supreme Court to restore new Postal Service rules for mail voting in the midterm elections. The database was created by federal agencies after an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last year sought to impose a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration. The order directed the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to create a system allowing state and local officials to verify citizenship or immigration status.

SAVE does not disqualify any voter; instead, it merely notifies the States whether the federal government can confirm citizenship.

· D. John SauerThe solicitor general described the administration’s view of what the database does.
About this summary

Originally published by CBS News. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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