Supreme Court revives DHS citizenship data tool for voter audits in win for Trump

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

In a major win for President Donald Trump’s efforts to find non-citizen voters, the Supreme Court on Friday said states can use a controversial citizenship data collection tool for reviewing voter rolls.

The court’s unsigned opinion rejected arguments that the administration likely broke the law by making easier for officials to use the data system to vet voters’ citizenship status.

But the opinion emphasized the use the program for “individualized” checks of a voter’s citizenship as the election approaches, while suggesting federal law prohibits mass purges close to Election Day.

The three liberal justices dissented from the ruling.

The order reverses a ruling that had blocked the use of the program known as Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements or SAVE. US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan had previously concluded that the administration violated federal privacy law in how it overhauled the data program so it could be used for sweeping reviews of state voter rolls.

Under federal law, the majority wrote, “the federal government has an obligation to respond to requests from state and local election officials seeking to verify the citizenship of voters.” The lower court order, the Supreme Court said, “prevents the federal government from using the program it believes is best suited to the task.”

This story is breaking and will be updated.

J. Scott Applewhite/美联社

最高法院周五裁定，各州可以使用有争议的公民身份数据收集工具来审查选民名册，这对唐纳德·特朗普总统寻找非公民选民的努力来说是一项重大胜利。

法院未署名的意见驳斥了以下论点：政府可能违反了法律，因为这使得官员更容易使用数据系统来审查选民的公民身份。

但该意见强调，随着选举临近，应利用该程序对选民的公民身份进行“个性化”核查，同时指出联邦法律禁止在选举日临近时进行大规模的选民资格审查。

三位自由派大法官对该裁决持反对意见。

该命令推翻了此前一项阻止使用名为“系统性外国人资格核查”（Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements，简称SAVE）项目的裁决。美国地区法官斯帕克尔·苏克纳南（Sparkle Sooknanan）此前裁定，政府在改造该数据项目以使其能够用于全面审查各州选民名册的过程中，违反了联邦隐私法。

多数意见认为，根据联邦法律，“联邦政府有义务回应州和地方选举官员提出的核实选民公民身份的请求”。最高法院表示，下级法院的命令“阻止联邦政府使用其认为最适合完成这项任务的程序”。

这是突发新闻，我们将持续更新。