Nbcnewyork iconNbcnewyorkSep 25, 2026 ~1 min source read

Supreme Court lets Trump administration use revamped federal voter eligibility database for now

Friday lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November's elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against noncitizen voting. It's a program that has drawn scrutiny for its use of voters' sensitive personal data and its tendency to wrongly flag some eligible voters as noncitizens.

Supreme Court lets Trump administration use revamped federal voter eligibility database for now

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Friday lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November's elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against noncitizen voting.

It's a program that has drawn scrutiny for its use of voters' sensitive personal data and its tendency to wrongly flag some eligible voters as noncitizens.

States' use of the SAVE program is voluntary, limiting the ruling's impact on the midterm elections.

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The useful part

Friday lifted restrictions on a controversial federal voter database before November's elections, granting President Donald Trump a temporary win in his aggressive campaign against noncitizen voting. It's a program that has drawn scrutiny for its use of voters' sensitive personal data and its tendency to wrongly flag some eligible voters as noncitizens. States' use of the SAVE program is voluntary, limiting the ruling's impact on the midterm elections.

How it works

  • He said DHS itself has admitted the data is not perfect.
  • On X, James Percival, the general counsel for DHS, responded to a post about the decision with, "Yes, you read that right.

Details worth keeping

The emergency order allows states, for now, to use the Trump administration's revamped version of a Department of Homeland Security program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, in their efforts to verify the eligibility of voters on their rolls.

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