The Trump Justice Department has petitioned the Supreme Court to reinstate federal authority behind an upgraded system built to check citizenship status on state voter rolls, Breitbart's John Binder reports. That tool, the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, gives states a way to strip foreign nationals and other ineligible names from their registration files.
Solicitor General John Sauer submitted the filing this past Tuesday, pressing justices to suspend a June ruling from District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee who had halted use of the upgraded system shortly after it simplified citizenship verification for states.
Sauer described Sooknanan's decision as "indefensible," warning it "threatens the integrity of upcoming elections by vacating the federal government's authority to internally use Social Security data when fulfilling its duty to respond to requests by States to verify the citizenship of individuals for voting and other purposes." He continued by cautioning that the ruling "will irreparably harm the federal government, the States, and the public by depriving the government of an effective tool to verify the eligibility of registered voters and benefits applicants under various state and federal programs."
Sooknanan defended her position by pointing to competing constitutional concerns, writing that the program "implicates two fundamental rights that protect Americans from government overreach: the right to privacy and the right to vote." She further asserted "the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote," adding that "this Court cannot stand idly by while that happens."
The case, League of Women Voters v. DHS, now rests with the Supreme Court pending a decision.
Problems like these on the voter rolls reflect the real price the country pays for years of loose immigration enforcement at every level. Safeguarding American elections calls for strict limits on both legal and illegal immigration paired with genuine ballot integrity measures that keep noncitizens off registration lists for good. Nothing less than full border security and rigorous citizenship checks can close the gaps this case has brought into the open.
