Insider Wire: Supreme Court Allows Larger Voter Citizenship Checks To Proceed Before Midterms

“The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program was created in 1986, to enable agencies to verify the immigration status of individuals receiving public benefits. States began using the program for voter verification in 2005 and 27 states currently do. In March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that caused the Department of Homeland Affairs to rebuild the program to include information from the Social Security Administration such as Social Security numbers, and to enable state and local officials to conduct bulk searches rather than one name at a time.”

“The League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a lawsuit against the program, claiming it violated a confidentiality provision in the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. In June, a federal district court agreed, vacating the modifications on all three charges. A divided D.C. Circuit panel refused to issue a stay, with Judge Gregory Katsas dissenting.”

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