Sparkle Sooknanan
Judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's 22 June 2026 ruling that set aside the expanded SAVE citizenship-check system was stayed by the Supreme Court 6-3 on 25 September, letting the Department of Homeland Security switch it back on before the midterms.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for Sparkle Sooknanan
Mentioned in: Supreme Court revives DHS's SAVE checks
US Midterms 2026Background
Sparkle L. Sooknanan sits on the federal district bench in Washington, DC, after President Joe Biden nominated her in 2024. Before joining the bench she clerked for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, was a partner at the law firm Jones Day and served in senior roles at the Justice Department.
The district court in Washington hears a large share of challenges to federal agency action. Her best-known ruling is the 22 June 2026 decision setting aside DHS's expanded SAVE System, the federal tool that lets election officials check voters' citizenship against immigration and Social Security data.
That case places her court in the middle of The National dispute over federal citizenship checks on voter rolls. the Supreme Court's stay means the final word on the system's legality now rests with the appeals process rather than her original order.
Her SAVE ruling held for three months
On 22 June 2026 Sooknanan set aside the Department of Homeland Security's modified SAVE System, which had been changed to accept bulk queries from election officials and to search Social Security records. The D.C. Circuit refused to revive the system on 4 September, leaving her order in force.
the Supreme Court took the opposite course on 25 September, voting 6-3 to let DHS restart the database while the case continues. Her ruling's practical effect before 3 November had already narrowed: the federal 90-day bar on systematic roll cleaning opened on 5 August, so states can use the restored system to check voters only one at a time until after the election.
Who is Judge Sparkle Sooknanan?
What did Judge Sooknanan rule on the SAVE database?
Did the Supreme Court overturn Judge Sooknanan's SAVE ruling?
