WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled on Monday that the Trump administration acted unlawfully by creating a centralized database containing Americans' private information. She set aside the administration's overhaul of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

Sooknanan found that the administration violated the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act with the new system. She stated that federal agencies knew the clearinghouse violated privacy protections established by Congress. "All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote," Sooknanan wrote. "This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens," she added.

The database was created in response to an executive order signed by President Trump, which sought to impose a new proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration. The executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to establish a database that would allow state and local officials to verify the citizenship or immigration status of individuals registering to vote.

The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and five individuals filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Justice. The plaintiffs argued that the Trump administration transformed the SAVE tool into a searchable national citizenship data system, drawing information from records held by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. They stated that states had used the modified SAVE system to purge individuals incorrectly identified as noncitizens from voter rolls.

The Trump administration defended its use of the SAVE system as a directive to break down information silos between government agencies. Justice Department lawyers told the court that only a small number of naturalized voters might have inaccurate citizenship data in Social Security Administration records. Sooknanan said the Trump administration's arguments to the contrary "border on the absurd."

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said, "The data at the heart of this lawsuit was unlawfully consolidated in violation of privacy laws intended to protect sensitive personal information." She also said, "We are honored to work alongside the plaintiffs and co-counsel in this case, and are grateful that the court has acted to protect people and our elections every day and especially during our nation's 250th anniversary year." The decision can be appealed to the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.