Trump Asks Supreme Court to Revive Voter Database

Solicitor General D. John Sauer called the district court's ruling "indefensible" and said it "threatens the integrity of upcoming elections."

"The order will irreparably harm the federal government, the States, and the public by depriving the government of an effective tool to verify the eligibility of registered voters and benefits applicants under various state and federal programs," Sauer wrote. He argued the lower courts exceeded their authority and that the expansion complies with federal law.

Sauer also told the justices the case warrants review because the order "universally vacates an important governmental policy" — a system he said processes millions of citizenship-verification requests every week for uses ranging from voter roll maintenance to screening federal benefits applicants.

The DOJ argued in the filing that the federal government is not to blame for any wrongful removals, saying the responsibility falls on state election officials to make sure purges prompted by SAVE audits follow voter registration laws.

Critics of the program say it produces inaccurate results that wrongly identify eligible voters as non-citizens and can lead to flawed purges that disenfranchise voters. The voter advocacy groups behind the lawsuit sued after the expansion made bulk reviews possible.

Many Republican-led states have been eager to use SAVE to vet their rolls, but they acknowledge that its results require additional investigation before any voter is removed.