WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ruled that a recently revamped version of a federal tool central to the Trump administration’s election integrity strategy is unlawful and can no longer be used. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups that argued the recent upgrades to the program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, aggregated Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls. “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 in an order explaining the decision. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.” She said Congress had expressly prohibited the government from centralizing Americans’ personal identifying information and that the federal agencies that created the SAVE program “knew that the database violates those statutory protections.” The decision is a major legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to
use federal agencies to encourage a nationwide crackdown on noncitizens illegally on state voter rolls. The modified SAVE system, which critics had referred to as an unlawful centralized federal database of voter information, had been a key pillar of the second election executive order the Republican president signed earlier this year. The ruling leaves its future uncertain. “It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” James Percival, general counsel at the Department of Homeland
Security, said of the ruling in a social media post. Calls to the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security were not immediately returned.
SAVE, Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, federal judge, Sparkle L. Sooknanan, voter rolls, election integrity, Trump administration, privacy rights
So they can just use the tool anyway later? Seems like a delay.
I don’t get it, SAVE sounds like it’s just checking stuff, not “purging” people. But if they’re collecting data wrong then yeah that’s not cool. Still, “sacred right to vote” is such a dramatic line.
Wait is this the same thing as voter registration? Like are they literally taking people off because of alien verification? I saw SAVE trending and thought it was only for welfare/entitlements, not voting rolls. Honestly the name is confusing so I’m not sure why everyone’s yelling left/right.
Judge blocked it because it aggregates sensitive info… ok but didn’t states already have all this? This feels like they’re playing whack-a-mole with databases. Also Trump always says it’s about election integrity but then it’s privacy rights, like pick one. If noncitizens are on rolls shouldn’t that be fixed, or is everyone just gonna panic about data centers forever?