A United States judge has ruled that the Justice Department unlawfully sought state voter rolls to cross-check against a federal immigration database and identify voters it considered ineligible. US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s decision on Friday marks another setback for President Donald Trump’s efforts to expand federal oversight of elections ahead of the midterms, as Republicans seek to retain control of Congress.

In a 78-page ruling siding with watchdog group Common Cause, Sooknanan stated the administration had understated the risk of wrongly removing eligible citizens from voter rolls due to inaccuracies in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. The judge wrote that the challenged policy represented the federal government’s attempt to decide who gets to vote, adding that Congress had left that authority to the states.

The Justice Department indicated it was reviewing the ruling. Ming Cheung, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, commented that the ruling clarified the administration could not use federal power to disrupt elections or jeopardize voters' rights. Cheung stated the Trump administration had repeatedly employed extreme measures to interfere with election processes, erode confidence in outcomes, and foster confusion.

Last year, Trump directed the department to intensify efforts against voting by ineligible individuals, despite research indicating voter fraud is rare. Consequently, the department requested unredacted voter rolls from nearly all 50 states, which included sensitive personal information. Eighteen states, primarily led by Republicans, provided the data.

The department then cross-checked this information against the SAVE database, flagging individuals identified as noncitizens for potential removal from voter rolls. Sooknanan noted that the SAVE database could contain outdated citizenship records, potentially misidentifying naturalized U.S. citizens. The Justice Department has also initiated lawsuits against 30 states and Washington, D.C., for refusing to supply voter data, with 26 of these cases having been dismissed.

This ruling follows a separate case in June where Sooknanan had previously blocked the expanded use of the SAVE database for voter roll checks. The U.S. Supreme Court had temporarily paused that order last month. Federal law prohibits systematic voter roll purges within the 90 days preceding an election.

The administration's push to scrutinize voter rolls has drawn criticism from voting rights advocates who argue such actions disproportionately affect minority voters and can lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible citizens. The focus on identifying non-citizen voters, while seemingly aimed at election integrity, has raised concerns about potential overreach and the chilling effect on participation.

This legal challenge underscores the ongoing tension between federal efforts to oversee election processes and the states' traditional authority over voter registration and management. The outcome of further legal reviews and potential appeals will be closely watched as the midterm elections approach.