A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s effort to create a centralized database combining Social Security numbers with voter citizenship status and other sensitive personal information, ruling the initiative unlawful and a violation of multiple federal privacy laws.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued the order in a 75-page decision, blocking implementation of the database and siding with voting rights groups that challenged the policy.
Ruling
Judge Sooknanan, an appointee of former President Biden, wrote that federal officials across multiple agencies improperly merged and repurposed private data belonging to millions of Americans to comply with a March executive order issued by President Trump.
Officials, she wrote, “haphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.”
The judge said the effort threatened Americans’ privacy and posed risks to the right to vote.
“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 wrote.
Executive Order
The executive order directed federal agencies to overhaul parts of the election system by establishing a national list of eligible voters based on available citizenship data. It also instructed the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver mail-in ballots to individuals listed on state-approved voter rolls.
As part of that directive, Trump ordered the Social Security Administration to create a “State Citizenship List” using its own records, naturalization data and information from the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.
Concerns
Sooknanan wrote that states had already begun partnering with the federal government to access the database and were removing U.S. citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information.
“States have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information,” the ruling said.
The judge concluded the database violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
Lawsuit
The case was brought by the League of Women Voters, which sued the Department of Homeland Security over the program. The court ruled in favor of the organization and blocked further development or use of the database.
Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs, called the decision a major victory.
“This protects millions from baseless investigations and unlawful voter roll purges — a critical win for voting rights,” the group said in a statement.
Response
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Department of Homeland Security pointed to a statement from its general counsel, James Percival, who criticized the ruling in a post on X.
“It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” Percival wrote. “Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s latest ruling preventing DHS from addressing alien voting is just the latest example.”
The ruling blocks the federal government from continuing efforts to create or rely on the database as envisioned under the executive order.
FAQs
What did the judge block?
A federal database linking Social Security numbers to voter data.
Why was the database struck down?
It violated privacy laws and relied on unreliable data.
Who challenged the policy in court?
The League of Women Voters.
Which laws did the judge cite?
The Social Security Act, Privacy Act and APA.
What happens next?
The government is barred from implementing the database.
