A Florida federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to reinstate bulk-upload and Social Security number search tools in the SAVE system after states argued the disabled features impaired voter citizenship checks and other state verification programs.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A federal judge in Florida has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to immediately restore key functions in the federal SAVE database after several states said a separate court ruling had blocked their ability to verify citizenship information for voter rolls and other state-administered programs.
U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II granted an emergency motion filed by Florida and other states seeking enforcement of a December 2025 settlement agreement with DHS. The agreement, approved by Wetherell, required the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system to remain available with bulk-upload capabilities, Social Security number search functions and rapid-response access.
The dispute followed a June 22, 2026, ruling by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., who issued a 75-page order blocking Trump administration changes to the SAVE database. That ruling led DHS to disable the features covered by the Florida settlement, prompting Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and officials from other states to return to court.
Wetherell’s order directed DHS to restore the disputed tools at once.
“Plaintiffs’ emergency motion to enforce settlement agreement is GRANTED, and Defendants shall immediately comply… by reinstating Plaintiffs’ access to the bulk-upload and SSN-search features in the SAVE system,” Wetherell wrote.
The SAVE system changes were tied to President Donald Trump’s March executive order on election administration. In that order, Trump said election integrity depended on preventing fraud, error and unlawful voting.
“Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic. The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election,” Trump’s executive order said.
“Under the Constitution, State governments must safeguard American elections in compliance with Federal laws that protect Americans’ voting rights and guard against dilution by illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error. Yet the United States has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements that, for example, prohibit States from counting ballots received after Election Day or prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote,” Trump said.
Sooknanan’s D.C. ruling accused the federal government of misusing data in a way that threatened voting rights. She wrote that the government had “knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote” and said officials had “haphazardly combined and repurposed” data.
The submitted information said Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, had previously blocked Trump from deporting Guatemalan children to Guatemala after the country requested their return and also halted a Federal Trade Commission investigation into Media Matters.
In the Florida case, Wetherell said his court had already determined, at least implicitly, that the SAVE modifications were lawful when it approved the December 2025 settlement. In the new order, he made that conclusion explicit, stating that the bulk-upload and Social Security number search functions do not violate either the Social Security Act or the Privacy Act.
The judge also rejected the argument that DHS should wait for appellate proceedings before restoring the features. According to the order, Florida, Ohio and Iowa presented unrebutted evidence that the loss of the tools was causing ongoing harm.
Florida argued that disabling the SAVE functions prevented it from carrying out laws requiring citizenship verification for registered voters. Ohio raised similar concerns involving voter registration checks. Iowa said the loss of the tools interfered with its ability to verify citizenship for professional license applicants.
Wetherell found that the states’ interests outweighed the concerns advanced by advocacy groups in the D.C. case. He wrote that the states’ interest in ensuring non-citizens are not included on voter rolls, and that unlawfully present aliens are not receiving professional licenses, outweighed the competing interests raised in the separate litigation.
The order acknowledged that DHS is now subject to two conflicting federal court directives: one requiring the SAVE functions to be disabled and another requiring them to be restored. Wetherell nevertheless concluded that the settlement agreement approved by his court remains enforceable and ordered DHS to comply immediately.
The parties were also ordered to file a status report within seven days addressing DHS’s compliance and any developments in the D.C. litigation.
The dispute was also highlighted in an X post referencing the Florida order and the reinstatement of the SAVE system features.
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