The ruling says the DOJ exceeded its authority and risked wrongly removing eligible voters from registration lists before the midterms.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan struck down the Trump Administration’s voter roll policy on Friday, ruling that the Justice Department unlawfully sought state voter-registration information for citizenship checks. The decision follows a September Supreme Court order permitting expanded use of a federal database in separate litigation, and an immigrant-rights lawsuit raising concerns that eligible voters are being misidentified.
Sooknanan sided with voting rights group Common Cause in a 78-page decision issued Oct. 9, Reuters reported. She vacated the department’s Voter List Maintenance Policy, finding that federal officials lacked the authority they claimed to collect and use private voter information this way. The policy also violated federal privacy and administrative requirements.
The department sought voter rolls from nearly every state, including personal information, to compare against the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as SAVE. Officials aimed to flag suspected noncitizens and press states to remove their registrations. At least 18 states supplied unredacted records.
Sooknanan said officials had understated the risk of errors in the database. Her opinion cited Anthony Nel, a U.S. citizen whose Texas voter registration was canceled after an inaccurate SAVE result. Other citizens also faced challenges to their eligibility.
“The challenged policy represents the federal government’s attempt to decide who gets to vote,” Sooknanan wrote. She said states are responsible for maintaining voter rolls and emphasized that the ruling does not prevent lawful federal assistance or legitimate state list maintenance.
The Trump Administration argues that checking citizenship records is necessary to prevent noncitizen voting, which is already illegal in federal elections. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Friday’s ruling is separate from Sooknanan’s June order blocking expanded use of SAVE. The Supreme Court temporarily paused that earlier ruling in September, allowing the expanded database to operate while litigation continues.
Federal law generally requires systematic voter-removal programs to be completed at least 90 days before federal elections, subject to exceptions. The latest voter roll policy ruling comes ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, with the department’s challenged policy now vacated.
More About:Politics
Weekly New Episodes
Stream Now