Judge Rules DOJ Unlawfully Used Voter Rolls and SAVE Database to Target Eligible Voters

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled on October 9, 2026, that the Justice Department acted unlawfully when it demanded unredacted voter rolls from nearly all 50 states and cross-checked them against the SAVE immigration database to flag voters it considered ineligible. In a 78-page ruling for the watchdog group Common Cause, Sooknanan found the administration understated the risk that inaccuracies in the database -- which can hold outdated citizenship records -- would lead to wrongly removing eligible, naturalized citizens from the rolls. She wrote that the policy "represents the federal government's attempt to decide who gets to vote," authority Congress left to the states. Eighteen states, mostly Republican-led, had complied with the Justice Department's demand.

The ruling is the latest stage in a running fight over the SAVE database: a related injunction from the same judge was paused by the Supreme Court in September, and 26 of 30 lawsuits the Justice Department filed against noncompliant states have already been dismissed.

The Justice Department said it is reviewing the ruling. A federal law barring systematic voter-roll purges within 90 days of a federal election may limit its practical effect before the November 3 vote.