DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Revive Blocked Immigration Database for Voter-Roll Purges

The Justice Department on Sept. 8, 2026 asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower-court order blocking DHS from using its overhauled SAVE immigration database to check state voter rolls, days after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to pause the same order. Solicitor General D. John Sauer called U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's June ruling "indefensible," while Sooknanan had found the modified database "haphazardly" assembled and a threat to "the sacred right to vote." Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the plaintiffs to respond by Sept. 15.

Before the injunction, the administration had used SAVE to check the citizenship status of more than 67 million registered voters; subsequent investigations found that most of the thousands of people flagged as potential noncitizens were actually eligible voters. Voting-rights groups say the request is part of a broader push, following Trump's March 2026 executive order, to build a federally managed national voter list, something that has never existed before.

The case remains pending before the Supreme Court, which had not ruled on the stay request as of publication.