Judge Sooknanan Blocks DOGE-Built SAVE Database, Ruling It Unlawfully Aggregates Millions of Voters' Data for Citizenship Purges

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On June 22, 2026, U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan (D.D.C.) granted summary judgment to a coalition led by the League of Women Voters and represented by Democracy Forward (with CREW and the Fair Elections Center), ruling the Trump administration’s upgraded SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database unlawful and ordering DHS to set aside and vacate its 2025 modifications. The modifications — built out by DOGE and DHS/USCIS — integrated Social Security citizenship data, enabled partial-Social-Security-number searches, and gave bulk free access to state and local election officials, who had already used it to wrongly remove U.S. citizens from voter rolls ahead of the 2026 midterms. The court found violations of the Social Security Act (SSN disclosure prohibition), the Privacy Act of 1974, and the Administrative Procedure Act. Sooknanan wrote that the government “knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.”

The ruling reaches the voter-roll-purge application of SAVE on the merits — a contrast to the mail-ballot/USPS track of the same election-control architecture (EO 14399), where Judge Nichols declined to reach the merits on ripeness grounds (2026-05-28) and the USPS proposed rule advanced the next day (2026-05-29). The administration can appeal to the D.C. Circuit; stay status was not specified at the time of ruling. The SAVE accuracy/Privacy concerns documented across the prior purge-blitz events (2026-05-04) are now court findings, not allegations.

Sources & Citations

[1] A federal judge finds a Trump data system to verify voters is unlawful — NPR · Jun 22, 2026 Tier 1

[2] Judge blocks Trump administration's 'haphazard' voter-screening database — ABC News · Jun 22, 2026 Tier 1

[3] Federal Judge Shuts Down Trump-Vance Voter Purge Database — Democracy Forward · Jun 22, 2026 Tier 2

Tiers Tier 1 court records & gov docs · Tier 2 established outlets · Tier 3 regional & specialty press · Tier 4 opinion or single-source. Methodology →

Cite this entry

The Cascade Ledger. “Judge Sooknanan Blocks DOGE-Built SAVE Database, Ruling It Unlawfully Aggregates Millions of Voters' Data for Citizenship Purges.” The Capture Cascade Timeline, June 22, 2026. https://capturecascade.org/event/2026-06-22--sooknanan-blocks-save-voter-purge-database-unlawful/