Judge Blocks Trump's Revamped Voter Database as Unlawful

A federal judge on Monday ruled that a revamped version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, central to President Donald Trump's election integrity strategy, is unlawful and can no longer be used. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups arguing that the SAVE database aggregated sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls.

The judge stated that the federal government had knowingly trampled on privacy rights, threatening the right to vote. She emphasized that Congress had expressly prohibited centralizing Americans' personal identifying information and that the agencies creating SAVE knew it violated statutory protections. The decision is a significant setback for Trump's efforts to use federal agencies to crack down on noncitizens illegally present in state voter rolls.

The modified SAVE system, described by critics as an unlawful centralized federal database of voter information, had been key to the second election executive order signed by President Trump earlier this year. The ruling leaves its future uncertain. James Percival, general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responded on social media with a statement criticizing the decision.

The SAVE system was overhauled in response to an executive order signed by Trump last year seeking to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration. The judge ruled that the administration violated three different laws, including the Social Security Act and Privacy Act, by combining private information of millions of Americans without proper compliance.

At least 25 states had been using the expanded SAVE program to check their voter rolls since April 2025, after the Trump administration significantly enhanced its search capabilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program. Critics warn that this could lead to eligible voters being wrongfully identified as noncitizens and purged from registration databases.

The ruling was cheered by voting rights advocates who argued that SAVE could be outdated, leading to eligible voters being wrongfully identified as noncitizens. The decision can be appealed to the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., and it comes amid fierce battles over election security and voter fraud claims ahead of the midterm elections.

In a related development, a federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with an effort to expand fast-track deportations throughout the U.S. A 2-1 decision by a panel of judges at the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia Circuit allows the Department of Homeland Security to carry out an expansion of the expedited removal process, which empowers federal immigration officials to deport some detainees without court hearings.

Before the second Trump administration, the expedited removal policy was limited to areas close to the border and only applied to recent entrants who could not prove they had been living in the country for more than two weeks. The expanded policy allows for expedited removal anywhere in the United States if an unauthorized immigrant cannot prove they have been in the country for more than two years.

In August 2025, a federal judge found that the Trump administration's expansion of expedited removal violated due process rights. However, the panel of appellate judges disagreed on Tuesday, invalidating her order. James Percival, the top lawyer at DHS, said Tuesday's order 'vindicated our decision to apply the law as written.'