A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from using expanded government databases in its effort to purge voter rolls of foreigners.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said the government “trampled” on the privacy rights of Americans and risked wrongfully purging voter rolls of Americans legally allowed to vote.
‘It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist.’
“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan said. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
The administration added government data, including Social Security data, to the SAVE federal database, which stands for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. SAVE is used to detect ineligible voters.
However, Sooknanan ruled that the expansion of the database violated privacy protections passed by Congress. She said the administration ignored the rules in order to “comply with an executive order aimed at reshaping federal elections, which directed them to create a system for mass voter verification.”
James Percival, the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, criticized the ruling on social media.
“It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” he wrote. “Judge Sparkle Soknanan’s [sic] latest ruling preventing DHS from addressing alien voting is just the latest example!”
Democracy Forward represented the group that challenged the expanded database.
“As the Trump-Vance administration continues its attack on the right to vote, this is an important victory for the American people and our democracy,” said Skye Perryman, the group’s CEO and president. “The data at the heart of this lawsuit was unlawfully consolidated in violation of privacy laws intended to protect sensitive personal information.”
The group added in a statement on social media: “This protects millions from baseless investigations and unlawful voter roll purges — a critical win for voting rights.”
RELATED: Trump order leads to investigation of 33 potential incidents of noncitizen voting, AG Paxton says
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York also praised the ruling.
“We got a big win in court today for free and fair elections, blocking Donald Trump’s efforts to set up a massive voter purge database,” he wrote on social media.
“I called this out months ago as one of Trump’s most sinister strategies for subverting our elections this November,” he added. “That’s why Democrats blocked the wretched SAVE Act in the Senate — and we’ll do so again, and again, and again. Democrats won’t stop fighting until all of Trump’s plans to rig the system are defeated.”
Sooknanan was nominated to the bench by former President Joe Biden in Jan. 2025 just ahead of Trump entering his second term.
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