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Indian-origin judge rules against Trump voter verification system
A federal judge ruled the Trump administration's voter verification overhaul violated privacy and administrative laws.
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Ankita Baidya - Tue, 23, Jun 2026
- 06:06 EDT
- 31
Sparkle Sooknanan blocked the Trump administration's use of a federal immigration database for voter citizenship verification. / United States District Court District of Columbia
A federal judge of Indian origin has blocked the Trump administration from using a revamped federal immigration database to verify the citizenship status of registered voters, ruling that the program violated multiple federal laws and posed risks to naturalized citizens.
In a 75-page ruling issued on June 22, Sparkle Sooknanan set aside the administration's 2025 overhaul of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, finding that federal agencies unlawfully repurposed sensitive personal information and failed to comply with privacy and administrative requirements.
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Sooknanan, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago to parents of Indian descent, serves on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was confirmed to the federal bench in December 2024.
The lawsuit challenged the administration's expansion of SAVE, a federal immigration database that state election officials were encouraged to use to identify potential noncitizens on voter rolls. Voting rights advocates argued that the system frequently contains outdated records and could incorrectly classify naturalized U.S. citizens as noncitizens.
In her ruling, Sooknanan cited internal Department of Homeland Security documents warning that naturalized citizens could be disproportionately affected by errors in the database. She wrote that federal agencies had "haphazardly combined and repurposed" personal information, including citizenship data they knew could be unreliable.
The decision comes amid broader national debates over election integrity and voter access. Advocacy groups contended that the expanded use of SAVE risked wrongful voter removals and could discourage eligible citizens from participating in elections.
One example highlighted in court filings involved a naturalized U.S. citizen in Texas who was removed from voter rolls after being flagged as a potential noncitizen through the database review process.
The Department of Justice said it would continue defending the administration's efforts to use SAVE in election-related verification processes.
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