India, June 25 -- In a significant legal defeat for the Trump administration's efforts to exert greater federal control over national elections, a federal judge has struck down the government's expanded use of a US Department of Homeland Security database designed to verify voter eligibility.

The ruling, handed down Monday by US District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, effectively disables a central pillar of the White House's strategy to purge voter rolls ahead of the upcoming November midterm elections.

The decision stems from a 2025 executive order that directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to overhaul the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system.

Originally built to assist agencies in verifying im...