Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett applaud at the conclusion of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Department of Homeland Security to continue its citizenship verification program.
In a 6-3 shadow docket ruling in the case of DHS v. League of Women Voters, justices allowed the Trump administration to expand the program that allows states to use Social Security records and other information to check voters’ citizenship status.
“By prohibiting interference with the disclosure of information regarding citizenship status to DHS—
“notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, orlocal law”—Congress necessarily authorized DHS to request and receive that information,” the majority opinion says.
The three liberals, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.
The majority held that the a 1996 federal law banning noncitizen voting likely authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to obtain citizenship information from other agencies, including state agencies.
Plaintiffs, led by the League of Women Voters, argued this could violate privacy rights. They also argued the used of the SAVE database, short for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, is not reliable,and risks purging elligible voters.
