Federal Judge OVERRULES Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s Attempt to Block Voter Verification Efforts

Late last month, a foreign-born activist judge named Sparkle Sooknanan ruled against efforts to verify citizenship for voters in elections.

This blatant instance of overstep led to Congressional efforts to impeach her.

As we previously reported:

Congressman Moves to IMPEACH Activist Judge Sparkle Sooknanan

But now, a federal judge has pulled a genius move to restore the voter verification system that this rogue judge tried to block.

On Tuesday, Judge Kent Wetherell of Florida ordered the DHS to allow four Republican-led states access to an expanded federal database used to verify citizenship and immigration status for voter rolls.

Those four states are: Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Indiana.

This directly overrules Sparkle's ruling blocking states from using this exact same system.

Here are the details:

A Federal Judge in Florida has REVERSED Foreign Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's ruling refusing to allow the federal government to use SSN-search and bulk-upload features to verify citizenship and immigration status for voter rolls.

This is HUGE. Now go pass the SAVE America Act and… pic.twitter.com/djlgLMN6ok

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 8, 2026

🚨 WOW! In a MASSIVE ruling, a Trump Florida federal judge just OVERRULED foreign-born activist Judge Sparkle Sooknanan — REINSTATES the SAVE SYSTEM that lets President Trump's team root out illegal aliens trying to vote in elections

LET'S GO!! 🔥

Judge KENT WETHERELL of… pic.twitter.com/c5Vswq2hlP

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 7, 2026

WOW! In a MASSIVE ruling, a Trump Florida federal judge just OVERRULED foreign-born activist Judge Sparkle Sooknanan — REINSTATES the SAVE SYSTEM that lets President Trump's team root out illegal aliens trying to vote in elections

LET'S GO!!

Judge KENT WETHERELL of Florida confirmed it: "[Reinstate] Plaintiffs’ access to the bulk-upload and SSN-search features in the SAVE system."

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Wetherell even CALLED OUT Sooknanan's ruling, saying SAVE systems do not violate the law.

That's the EXACT system "Sooknanan" ruled against.

TOTAL JUDICIAL WAR!

Now impeach the foreign judge and confirm more like Judge Wetherell

The federal voter verification system at the heart of this case is called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.

The Washington Examiner reported further on the ruling:

In a ruling Tuesday, Judge T. Kent Wetherell II of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said Florida could continue implementing a 2025 settlement agreement with DHS that allows the state to use an expanded version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program to verify voter eligibility.

Wetherell wrote that the agreement permits Florida to continue “improving and modernizing” the federal citizenship database, including by integrating Social Security Administration data. Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana are also covered under the settlement.

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In his ruling, Judge Wetherell acknowledged Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's prior decision.

He pointed out that her ruling directly violates the Trump administration's earlier agreement with states on the federal voter verification system.

In other words, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's ruling was totally unlawful.

Reuters explained more:

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U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II in Pensacola in a ruling on Tuesday said he was aware of Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's June 22 decision to halt use of the revamped database, which contains Social Security numbers, citizenship status, and other data on people nationwide.

But Wetherell, who ​was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump, said that by disabling Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Indiana's access to key features in the database in ​response to Sooknanan's ruling, DHS had violated an earlier settlement the Trump administration entered into with the states to ⁠improve and modernize the system.

"The fact that Defendants disabled those features to comply with Judge Sooknanan’s order does not change the fact that they violated ​the agreement," he said.
Sooknanan, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, had sided with voting rights and privacy advocates who argued that the overhaul of ​the system, known as SAVE, made it less accurate and risked disenfranchising eligible voters.
Wetherell said he disagreed with Sooknanan's conclusion that the revamp was unlawful and that it violated privacy laws restricting the federal government's disclosure of Social Security numbers and other information.

Wetherell said that when he approved the Trump administration's settlement of a Biden-era lawsuit the state of ​Florida had filed in 2024 that challenged the SAVE system's prior implementation, he had "implicitly" found that the modifications the deal called for were consistent with federal ​law.