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55m ago

Supreme Court Lets DHS Share Expanded SAVE With States

The decision opens temporary federal access to Social Security-linked records that critics say produce error-prone citizenship matches.

Formal group photograph of the Supreme Court as it was been comprised on June 30, 2022, after Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the Court. The Justices are posed in front of red velvet drapes and arranged by seniority, with five seated and four standing. Seated from left are Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito and Elena Kagan. Standing from left are Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

Overview

  • The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 emergency stay on Sept. 25 that allows the Department of Homeland Security to provide states access to the SAVE system while appeals proceed.
  • The SAVE system was expanded after a 2025 presidential order to include Social Security Administration data, searches by Social Security number, U.S.-born citizens and bulk queries, which changes how states can check voter citizenship.
  • The conservative majority cited the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act as statutory authority for interagency sharing, while the plaintiffs argue the expansion violates the Privacy Act and the Social Security Act and are pursuing those claims on appeal.
  • Practical limits restrict immediate large-scale effects because federal law bars systematic voter-roll removals within about 90 days of an election and because states must opt in to use SAVE.
  • Voting-rights groups and some county reviews have found frequent mismatches and errors in the modified system, raising the risk that inaccurate flags could chill or wrongly remove lawful voters and prompting close scrutiny of state use and the ongoing litigation.