Supreme Court Hands Trump Win On Voter Citizenship Checks Ahead Of Midterms

A Supreme Court decision on Friday will allow the Trump administration to work with states to verify voters’ citizenship. 

The 6-3 ruling allows state officials to use an expanded version of a federal database to verify that registered voters are citizens. The database, known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, was created in 1986 to check the immigration status of noncitizens applying for public benefit programs and has been used by states for voter verification since 2005. The Trump administration expanded it to include Social Security records and allow officials to check many voters at once. 

Attorney General Todd Blanche celebrated the order. 

“Huge victory for election integrity! The Supreme Court granted [the Justice Department]’s stay in revamping the SAVE citizenship verification database, which will allow states to clear the voter rolls of illegal voters,” he said. “The modified SAVE system allows state and local officials to conduct citizenship verification of registered voters to keep aliens from voting.”

“The Justice Department will continue fighting in court for secure elections. Every American should want this!” Blanche added. 

The impact on this year’s midterms is likely to be limited. With the November 3 general election less than 40 days out, states are already inside the 90-day window in which federal law prohibits systematic purges of ineligible voters.

The Department of Homeland Security expanded the SAVE program in May 2025, following an executive order President Donald Trump signed that March as part of his push for more election safeguards. Several liberal election groups, including the League of Women Voters, challenged the program’s expansion. As a result, a federal district judge in Washington blocked the modified program in June, and the federal appeals court declined to pause the ruling.  

Friday’s order pauses the district court’s ruling while the case proceeds on appeal. It is not a final decision on whether the expanded program is legal.

“All agree that the order prevents the Federal Government from using the modified SAVE program to conduct individualized inquiries, which are permitted under federal law during this period,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “The District Court’s order thus inhibits the Federal Government’s efforts to assist state and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections.”

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday came from the court’s six conservative justices. Liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented, arguing that expanding the SAVE program would harm the American public.

Jason Snead, the executive director of the conservative group Honest Elections Project, praised the Supreme Court’s order. 

“The Supreme Court got it right,” he said. “Once again, left-wing interests are doing everything they can to block states from verifying citizenship on the eve of a federal election, and for the second time in a week they have lost in court. This is a major win for election integrity.”