Supreme Court allows Trump admin to use federal voter eligibility database during appeal

An order issued Friday by the Supreme Court temporarily allows the Trump administration to move forward with a mass voter verification system.

The emergency order allows states, for now, to use the Department of Homeland Security program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, in their efforts to verify the eligibility of voters on their rolls. 

Because existing law blocks most states from systematically purging voters from their rolls within 90 days of an election, the immediate impact of Friday's order on the upcoming midterms is likely limited, the Associated Press reported. States' use of the SAVE program is voluntary.

The court’s order puts on hold a federal judge’s June ruling that had deemed the Republican administration’s recently revamped version of SAVE illegal. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan had blocked the use of the tool, saying it violated Americans’ privacy rights and could result in voters being wrongly removed from the rolls.

A federal appeals court declined to pause Sooknanan's ruling, prompting the administration's appeal to the Supreme Court.

An executive order signed by Trump had directed the creation of a federal voter registration list and imposed new restrictions on eligibility for voting by mail as part of the administration's broader effort to combat voter fraud.

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. The Trump administration last year moved to significantly expand its search abilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics, the AP says, worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Fox News Digital's Ashley J. DiMella and the Associated Press contributed to this report.