The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the Trump administration to use an expanded federal database containing citizenship information, as the president encourages states to purge people from voter rolls.
The justices, divided 6-3 on ideological lines with conservatives in the majority, granted an emergency request filed by the government after lower courts ruled that the Trump administration’s changes to the database were likely unlawful.
Critics have said the data is unreliable and could lead to U.S. citizens being kicked off the voter rolls. But the court noted in its unsigned ruling that the National Voter Registration Act bars the broad purging of voter rolls in the weeks leading up to an election, which “limits the potential impact” of the decision this year. States can still make individualized queries about voters.
So to the detriment of Democrats, SCOTUS temporarily clears the Trump administration to use an expanded federal SAVE database, including Social Security information, to help states verify voter citizenship ahead of the November midterms. The GOP views this as common sense seeing as the system will help identify non-citizens on voter rolls, while the Left argues that it risks privacy violations and erroneous voter removals. A federal judge (appointed by Joe Biden of course) had previously blocked the system, but the SCOTUS’ emergency ruling allows its use while the broader legal challenge continues. Democrats can take some relief in the fact that states cannot conduct a wholesale purge of non-citizens from voter rolls this close to November, limiting the impact this year while potentially making it more significant by the next presidential election.
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