A U.S. federal appeals court rejected the administration of U.S. President “Donald Trump’s” request to lift a ban on using a federal immigration database to verify the accuracy of citizenship data contained in voter rolls in the United States.
In a ruling issued Friday by a two-to-one majority, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision barring the use of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements” database for this purpose.
The earlier ruling barred the government from using the system ahead of the midterm elections scheduled for November 3, during which Republicans are seeking to maintain their narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Concerns Over Errors in Citizenship Data
Chief Judge “Sri Srinivasan” and Circuit Judge “Robert Wilkins,” both of whom were appointed to the Court of Appeals by former President “Barack Obama,” upheld the lower court’s decision, which found that the verification system violates the Social Security Act by sharing private personal information belonging to millions of Americans.
The appeals court judges also expressed concerns that the database could contain inaccurate information regarding the citizenship of some individuals, which could lead to voters being asked to prove their citizenship in order to maintain their registration on voter rolls, and in some cases could even result in their registrations being canceled.
U.S. Circuit Judge “Gregory Katsas,” who was appointed by Trump, dissented from the majority opinion.
Legal Battle Over the Database
The ruling comes amid legal disputes over the use of the database at the state level. In July, a judge in Florida ordered the Department of Homeland Security to resume granting four Republican-led states access to the database, after another judge had barred the department from continuing to use it nationwide.
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Author: Counselor Faisal Al-Mutairi.
Publication Date: September 6, 2026.
Updated: September 2026.
