US judge rules Justice Department use of voter rolls unlawful

A US judge ruled ‌on Friday that the Justice Department’s push to obtain state voter rolls and check them ‌against a federal immigration database in ‌order to demand that states remove voters it deemed ineligible was unlawful.

Washington-based US District Judge Sparkle ⁠Sooknanan ​wrote that ⁠the Justice Department had downplayed the risk ⁠that its practice would wrongfully disenfranchise eligible US ​citizens despite evidence that the immigration database, ⁠known as SAVE, could be inaccurate. In a separate ⁠case, ​Sooknanan blocked President Donald Trump's administration from using an expanded version ⁠of the SAVE database to check the accuracy ⁠of ⁠voter rolls. The US Supreme Court has temporarily paused that decision.