US judge rules Trump administration’s use of voter data unlawful | US Midterm Elections 2026 News
Federal Judge Rules Against Justice Department’s Voter Data Cross-Referencing
A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department unlawfully sought access to state voter rolls in order to cross-check them against a federal immigration database. This ruling aims to identify voters the department considered ineligible.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued the decision on Friday, presenting a significant setback for efforts by President Donald Trump to increase federal oversight of elections as the midterms approach. This initiative is part of a broader strategy by Republicans to maintain control of Congress.
In her 78-page ruling, Sooknanan sided with the watchdog group Common Cause, stating that the administration had underrepresented the risks associated with improperly removing eligible citizens from voter rolls. These inaccuracies stemmed from the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.
“The challenged policy represents the federal government’s attempt to decide who gets to vote,” Sooknanan wrote, emphasizing that Congress delegated this authority to the states.
The Justice Department announced it was currently reviewing the ruling.
Ming Cheung, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, expressed that the decision underscores the administration’s inability to utilize federal resources to disrupt elections or jeopardize voter rights.
“The Trump administration has repeatedly taken extreme measures to interfere with how elections are run, undermine confidence in the results, and create confusion,” Cheung stated.
Last year, Trump instructed the Justice Department to intensify efforts against voting by ineligible individuals, despite studies indicating that voter fraud is infrequent. Following this directive, the department sought unredacted voter rolls from nearly all 50 states, requesting sensitive personal information.
Eighteen states, primarily led by Republican officials, complied with this request. The department then cross-referenced their data with the SAVE database, flagging individuals identified as noncitizens for potential removal from voter rolls.
Sooknanan commented that the SAVE database may contain outdated citizenship information, potentially leading to the misidentification of naturalized U.S. citizens.
The department has also initiated legal actions against 30 states and Washington, D.C., for their refusal to provide voter data, with 26 cases dismissed so far.
In a separate ruling in June, Sooknanan had blocked the expanded use of the SAVE database for voter roll checks; this order was temporarily paused by the U.S. Supreme Court last month.
Federal law prohibits systematic voter roll purges in the 90 days preceding a federal election, which may limit the practical implications of the ruling before the upcoming vote on November 3.
