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Trump administration can use revamped voter screening tool for now, SCOTUS rules
The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to proceed with its enhanced voter citizenship verification system. This decision grants the administration a temporary victory in its efforts to implement new election regulations before the midterm elections. Voting rights organizations, however, express serious concerns that this system could wrongly disqualify eligible voters. The Court's majority stated that the federal government must assist state and local officials in verifying voter citizenship. They argued that a lower court's injunction prevented the federal government from using its preferred verification program. The League of Women Voters condemned the decision, warning of potential unlawful targeting of millions of Americans by an unreliable database shortly before elections. They vow to continue legal challenges to uphold the district court's ruling that the expanded SAVE program violated multiple laws. The Department of Homeland Security praised the Supreme Court's intervention, highlighting the necessity of using government data to prevent noncitizens from voting illegally. The administration had expanded the SAVE system, originally for benefit eligibility, to assess voter eligibility by incorporating Social Security data and enabling bulk searches. Advocates sued, claiming these changes exceeded the SAVE system's authorized scope and functionality, with a district court judge agreeing that the administration misused Americans' data. Justice Jackson, in dissent, emphasized the risk of disenfranchisement and questioned the government's harm from a delay, given the upcoming election's purging restrictions. She argued that the potential disenfranchisement of lawful voters outweighs any minimal harm to the government. This ruling follows a previous Supreme Court decision that thwarted the U.S. Postal Service's mail-in voting rule changes.