US Judge Strikes Down Trump Database for Legal Residents Removed from Voter Rolls

WASHINGTON - A US federal judge has overturned Donald Trump's government database containing personal information of citizens. The database was declared illegal because it was used by a number of states to cross out citizens who actually have the right to vote from the voter list.

As reported by China Daily, quoted Tuesday, June 23, the ruling was handed down by Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday.

"The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a way that threatens the sacred right to vote. This court cannot stand idly by when that happens," Sooknanan wrote in his ruling, as quoted by China Daily.

According to Sooknanan, a number of federal agencies rushed to comply with the executive order to overhaul the federal election. As a result, they arbitrarily combined and reused the personal data of millions of Americans.

The data includes citizenship information that the judge said was already known to be unreliable.

"Since then, states have worked with the federal government to access the database and actively remove United States citizens from the voter rolls based on inaccurate information," Sooknanan wrote.

The judge said this case touched two basic rights of American citizens, namely the right to privacy and the right to vote.

The ruling came after a coalition of voting and privacy rights advocates filed a lawsuit in September. The lawsuit was led by the League of Women Voters.

They are suing changes to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements or SAVE, the US government's system for verifying a person's citizenship and immigration status.

In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order to overhaul US elections. The order requires proof of citizenship documents for residents who want to register as voters in federal elections.

Trump reasoned that the United States had not sufficiently enforced federal election requirements.

According to the ruling, Executive Order 14248 ordered a number of federal agencies to prepare a verification system for state and local authorities. The agencies in question include the US Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

The system is used to check the citizenship or immigration status of registered voters and residents who want to register as voters.

In a statement on Monday, the League of Women Voters said the ruling overturned the Trump-Vance administration's attempt to illegally interfere with the election.

The group said the database combined the personal information of millions of Americans who are sensitive and legally protected.

According to the group, millions of people are at risk of being the target of baseless investigations and even losing their right to vote because they are crossed off from the voter list.