The Supreme Court revives a controversial data system for citizenship checks

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks during a news conference July 1 in New York. David Delgado/AP hide caption

The U.S. Supreme Court has for now revived a federal data system the Department of Homeland Security revamped into a tool to check the citizenship of millions of Americans on state voter rolls. The tool has mistakenly flagged some eligible voters as potential noncitizens.

The news comes as the Trump administration has been pouring resources into searching for noncitizens on voter rolls ahead of the upcoming election.

Many states uploaded their voter lists to the expanded version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements data system — known as SAVE — sharing that voter information with the federal government. Tens of millions of voter records were run through SAVE before it was blocked by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., in June.

The Supreme Court's decision clears the way for the administration to again use the revamped SAVE in its hunt for noncitizens on voter rolls, as well as in its unprecedented project of compiling lists of adult citizens in each state .

Any impact on the midterm elections is unclear. Federal law bans states from "systematically" removing voters from rolls within 90 days of a federal election.

The Trump administration and Republican state officials have argued that statute should not apply to removing noncitizens who were improperly registered. And the federal government argued to the Supreme Court that at a minimum, the updated SAVE should be able to be used for individual removal decisions ahead of an election.

In siding with the Trump administration, the court's majority wrote that the lower court order that halted the expanded SAVE prevents the federal government "from using the modified SAVE program to conduct individualized inquiries, which are permitted under federal law during this [90-day] period. The District Court's order thus inhibits the Federal Government's efforts to assist state and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections."