A federal judge on Monday slammed the Trump administration’s attempt at creating a searchable national citizenship database as a clear threat to voting rights.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan sided with the League of Women Voters to block the database which would have consisted of made up of individuals’ Social Security numbers, citizenship status and other sensitive data.
The judge found the government’s use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system to create the database violated key provisions of the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 prohibiting the non-consensual disclosure of sensitive information.
In a 75-page opinion, Sooknanan ruled the modification of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s SAVE tool was clearly unlawful.
The Joe Biden appointee noted Congress enacted both statutes to prevent “precisely this type of centralized data bank.”
And despite knowing the database violated those statutes, the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Justice moved forward with its creation anyway, Sooknanan said.
