Supreme Court permits states to use SAVE database for citizenship checks

The Supreme Court ruled that states may use the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database to verify voter citizenship, overturning lower courts that had blocked its use over accuracy and disenfranchisement concerns. The majority held that the federal government must respond to requests from state and local election officials seeking citizenship verification and stayed the district court’s injunction as interfering with federal assistance for elections. SAVE was created by DHS to determine immigration benefit eligibility and track naturalization applicants but was repurposed under the prior administration to screen voters. Voting-rights groups, including the League of Women Voters and EPIC, sued, arguing that merging SAVE data with Social Security records violated confidentiality provisions in the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Adoption of SAVE for voter-list maintenance is uncertain: some conservative states have used it and view it as helpful, while most states resist federal citizenship-verification efforts, and the previous administration lost 23 federal suits seeking broader data sharing. Experts expect limited impact on the 2026 cycle due to laws restricting registration changes within 90 days of an election. Dissenting justices - Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - criticized the majority for acting without full briefing, faulted DHS for failing to issue a formal system-of-records notice or seek public comment, and warned that longstanding privacy laws should constrain the database’s use.