Courts allow Ohio citizenship-proof rule and federal voter verification system

An appeals court has allowed Ohio to enforce a law requiring people registering to vote through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. The ruling pauses a lower-court block.

Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted restrictions on the Trump administration’s use of the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as SAVE, to help states check the citizenship status of people on voter rolls. States are not required to use the program, though the BBC reported that 27 states currently do so.

A federal judge had ruled in June that the expanded system was unlawful and violated Americans’ privacy rights. The Supreme Court’s emergency order allows its use while litigation continues. The court said federal law permits the Department of Homeland Security to obtain citizenship and immigration information from other agencies and requires it to respond to state requests.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Voting-rights groups have warned that outdated or inaccurate records could cause eligible U.S. citizens to be incorrectly identified as non-citizens. Federal law generally restricts broad voter-roll purges within 90 days of an election, limiting the order’s potential effect before November’s midterms.