New Delhi, June 23: A federal judge in the United States has invalidated a database created by the Trump administration that contained sensitive information about American citizens. The judge deemed it illegal, as several states had used it to remove eligible voters from the electoral rolls.
According to news agency Xinhua, Judge Sparkle Sukananan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stated in her ruling, “The federal government has deliberately violated the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that jeopardizes essential rights like voting. The court cannot remain silent in such circumstances.”
Sukananan noted that federal agencies were hasty in following an executive order that aimed to alter the federal election system. As a result, they collected and reused the private information of millions of Americans in a disorganized manner, including citizenship data that they already knew to be unreliable.
She further explained, “Since then, states have partnered with the federal government to access the database and have removed American citizens from voter lists based on inaccurate information.”
According to the U.S. District Judge, “This case highlights two fundamental rights that protect Americans from government intrusion: the right to privacy and the right to vote.”
The recent ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in September by a coalition of organizations advocating for voting rights and privacy, led by the League of Women Voters. The petition challenged changes made to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, which is operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is used to verify citizenship and immigration status.
In March 2025, President Trump signed a significant executive order aimed at making major changes to American elections, which required documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. He claimed that the U.S. had not properly implemented the needs of federal elections.
The ruling stated that Executive Order 14248 directed several federal agencies, including DHS and the Social Security Administration, to establish systems for verifying the citizenship or immigration status of registered voters or those registering to vote for state and local officials.
On Monday, the League of Women Voters issued a statement saying, “The Trump administration’s illegal attempt to interfere in elections has been thwarted today, as a federal judge ordered the government to dismantle and resolve a significant government database.”
The statement added, “This database aggregates sensitive and legally protected personal information of millions of Americans, making them vulnerable to baseless scrutiny and illegal removal from voter lists.”
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