Supreme Court allows Trump to use SAVE database to check voter citizenship

Key Points:

• The US Supreme Court has lifted restrictions on the Trump administration's use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which identifies voters suspected of being non-citizens using citizenship and sensitive data.
• Critics warn the database is unreliable and risks wrongly removing US citizens from voter rolls; a federal judge had previously ruled the system illegal and a violation of privacy rights.
• The Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled that the National Voter Registration Act limits broad voter roll purges close to elections, reducing the decision's potential impact ahead of the midterms.
• Dissenting Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed concern that eligible voters could be mistakenly disenfranchised, emphasizing the harm to lawful voters outweighs government interests.
• While 27 states use the SAVE system to check voter citizenship, critics highlight cases of errors, such as in Texas where at least 10% of flagged voters were US citizens; some states like Georgia have worked with the program and implemented safeguards to prevent wrongful disenfranchisement.