[UPDATE] Supreme Court lets states resume checking voter rolls against Trump's expanded federal citizenship database while the case is appealed

The Supreme Court on Friday, Sept. 25, paused a June ruling by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan that had blocked the Trump administration's rebuilt SAVE system (a Homeland Security tool, created in 1986 to check immigrants' eligibility for benefits, that states can query to learn whether a voter is a citizen). The unsigned order said the challengers' claims "likely lack merit." Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented in 12 pages, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan; the order lists no formal vote count. The rebuild. The revamp added Social Security data, so states can search by Social Security number, and let them submit whole voter rolls in bulk instead of one name at a time. Sooknanan had found the administration "knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens." The limit. The National Voter Registration Act bars systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election, and Nov. 3 was less than 40 days away when the order landed. Using SAVE is voluntary; 27 states do. What next. The case returns to the D.C. Circuit, which has not scheduled arguments. The stay holds through that appeal and any Supreme Court petition.