{"id":2669932,"date":"2026-09-25T12:59:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T16:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignscotus-restores-dhs-program-used-to-identify-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T13:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T17:01:32","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignscotus-restores-dhs-program-used-to-identify-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignscotus-restores-dhs-program-used-to-identify-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Restores Program That Identifies Registered Noncitizens"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignscotus-restores-dhs-program-used-to-identify-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2669932&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily paused a lower court\u2019s order that blocked the Trump management&#8217;s program aimed at verifying voters&#8217; U.S. citizenship status. In a 6-3 decision, the Court granted the government&#8217;s request to stay the June ruling by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-ice-ruling-is-another-defeat-for-rogue-judges\/\" title=\"SCOTUS&#039; ICE Ruling Is Another Defeat For Rogue Judges\">biden-appointed district judge<\/a>, which had halted the use of a revised federal system to confirm citizenship for election integrity. The modified program stemmed from a March executive order by President Trump, instructing agencies to create systems for verifying voters\u2019 citizenship and immigration status, including overhauling the DHS\u2019s SAVE database. <\/p>\n<p>The trump administration\u2019s effort to reverse the lower court\u2019s decision was initially rejected by the D.C. Circuit, prompting the government to appeal to the Supreme Court.The Court considered factors such as the likelihood of success on the merits and potential irreparable harm, ultimately favoring the administration. The majority believed the plaintiffs\u2019 claims of violations of various laws were unlikely to succeed as Congress authorized agencies to share citizenship information. <\/p>\n<p>However, dissenting Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued that the majority misinterpreted the relevant statutes and that the government\u2019s modifications to the system likely violate the law. She expressed concerns about the legal basis for the program and noted that the Supreme Court\u2019s stay is temporary, pending further appeals.The ruling means the program can continue to be used pending the resolution of the case thru the appellate courts or a potential writ of certiorari to the Supreme court.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to pause a lower court blockade on a Trump administration program that helps verify registered voters\u2019 citizenship status. The vote was 6-3, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson in dissent. <\/p>\n<p>In its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/25pdf\/26a308_pok0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">per curiam opinion<\/a>, the high court granted the government\u2019s emergency application to temporarily stay a June ruling by D.C. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee. That decision blocked the use of a revised federal system to determine whether a registered voter is a U.S. citizen for election integrity purposes.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2026\/09\/citing-election-fraud-concerns-trump-administration-brings-dispute-over-voter-database-to-the-su\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a> by SCOTUSblog, the modified program came about following a March <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/03\/preserving-and-protecting-the-integrity-of-american-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">executive order<\/a> by President Trump that (\u201camong other things\u201d) instructed the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to \u201ccreate systems that would allow state and local governments to verify the citizenship and immigration status of voters.\u201d Those departments subsequently \u201coverhauled\u201d DHS\u2019s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database system \u201cto include the records of U.S.-born citizens, to give it access to Social Security numbers, and to allow bulk searches (rather than requiring users to inquire about one person at a time).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration\u2019s initial request to pause Sooknanan\u2019s decision was <a href=\"https:\/\/media.cadc.uscourts.gov\/orders\/docs\/2026\/09\/26-5243LDSN.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rejected<\/a> by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (2-1) on Sept. 4. The government then filed its application for relief with SCOTUS days later.<\/p>\n<p>In its Friday ruling, the Supreme Court weighed several factors (likelihood of success on the merits, showing of irreparable harm if the injunction is left in place, etc.) in deciding to grant the administration\u2019s request for relief. <\/p>\n<p>Starting with the prospects that it would reverse the lower courts, the high court found that while the left-wing League of Women Voters and other plaintiff organizations challenging the president\u2019s order \u201clikely have standing, their claims likely lack merit.\u201d The majority noted that the plaintiffs\u2019 arguments that the administration \u201cviolated the Social Security Act, Privacy Act, and [Administrative Procedures Act]\u201d likely fall flat because Congress \u201cseparately and expressly authorized DHS to request and receive information relating to citizenship and immigration status from other agencies, including SSA, in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SCOTUS went on to describe relevant provisions of the IIRIRA and how they seemingly bar the plaintiffs\u2019 claims against the administration. \u201cIn light of these provisions,\u201d the majority wrote, \u201cthis Court is likely to reverse the District Court\u2019s holding that the federal defendants violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the APA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The court added that the rest of the factors used to determine if a stay is warranted favor the administration. <\/p>\n<p>Writing for the dissent, Jackson disagreed with the majority\u2019s interpretation of the IIRIRA. While characterizing its reading as a \u201c\u2018back-of-the-napkin assessment&#8217;\u201d that \u201cis implausible,\u201d the Biden appointee accused the court of \u201cmisread[ing] the statutory text.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[N]othing in \u00a71373 authorizes the modified SAVE system or overrides the provisions of the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act that Respondents say the Government has violated. And the Government puts forward no nonforfeited arguments that the modifications to SAVE in fact complied with the Social Security Act\u2019s confidentiality provision,\u201d Jackson wrote. \u201cThese are reasons enough to find that the Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its appeal, so I would not reach the Government\u2019s arguments regarding the Privacy Act and the APA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson further espoused disagreement with the majority\u2019s weighing of the other factors used to grant the administration\u2019s request for relief. She also seemingly bragged that the one \u201cbright side\u201d of the court\u2019s opinion is that it \u201cwill likely have minimal short-term impact, as States will at most conduct individualized voter-roll maintenance using the modified SAVE system ahead of the November elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Friday\u2019s ruling, Sooknanan\u2019s order is \u201cstayed pending the disposition of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and disposition of a petition for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/Writ_of_certiorari\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">writ of certiorari<\/a>, if such a writ is timely sought.\u201d The Supreme Court\u2019s pause will terminate if a petition from the administration to SCOTUS is denied by the high court or if SCOTUS agrees to consider the matter and issue a judgment on the merits of the case.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTUS pauses lower court block on voter citizenship check<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2669933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Vote.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[3813,13833,32275],"class_list":["post-2669932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-immigration","tag-noncitizens","tag-supreme-court"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Vote.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2669932"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2669936,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2669932\/revisions\/2669936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2669933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2669932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2669932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2669932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}