The justices lifted a block on expanded features of SAVE, a federal system Oklahoma says it uses to verify voter citizenship.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to use an expanded federal citizenship database while a legal challenge continues.
The State Election Board says it uses the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, known as SAVE, to verify citizenship information. Friday’s order does not require Oklahoma to conduct new checks.
Under Oklahoma law, a voter whose record definitively matches a record identifying the person as a noncitizen must receive notice and has 30 days from the date the notice is sent to provide proof of citizenship before the registration is canceled.
The administration expanded SAVE last year to include Social Security records and allow searches of multiple people at once. Voting rights and privacy groups challenged those changes, arguing that inaccurate records could force eligible voters, particularly naturalized citizens, to prove their citizenship again. A federal judge blocked the expanded system in June.
In an unsigned emergency opinion, the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold during the appeal. The majority said federal law likely permits the information sharing and that blocking the system interferes with the government’s ability to answer citizenship inquiries from state and local election officials.
Three justices dissented. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, argued that the majority gave too little weight to privacy concerns and the risk to eligible voters whose citizenship records are outdated.
The Court acknowledged a federal restriction on programs that systematically remove voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election. It said that restriction limits the order’s potential effect this fall, while individual citizenship inquiries remain possible. The justices did not decide how the 90-day restriction applies to removals based on citizenship; that question is pending in a separate case.
