Politics
A panel of the U.S. federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s request to lift restrictions on its use of a federal immigration database to verify citizenship records in state voter rolls.
A panel of the U.S. federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s request to lift restrictions on its use of a federal immigration database to verify citizenship records in state voter rolls.
In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to overturn a lower court decision that barred the Department of Homeland Security from using the database for this purpose. The earlier ruling said the government could not use the system ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, in which Republicans will seek to maintain their narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins, both appointed to the appeals court by former President Barack Obama, upheld the lower court’s finding that the verification system violates the Social Security Act by sharing the private personal information of millions of Americans.
The appeals court judges also raised concerns that access to citizenship information could lead to people being required to prove their citizenship in order to remain registered on voter rolls. In some circumstances, this could result in their voter registrations being cancelled.
Trump-appointed Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas dissented from the majority opinion. In July, a Florida judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to restore database access to four Republican-led states. Earlier, another judge had barred the department from continuing to use the database nationwide.
