Anti-Trump attorney: ‘Don’t overreact’ to Supreme Court voter database decision

Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics lawyer and frequent critic of President Trump, urged Americans not to “overreact” after the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling permitting the administration to move forward with its new immigration database ahead of the midterm elections.

In an emergency ruling , the high court found that the Trump administration could proceed with its plans to allow states to use this overhauled online system to search for ineligible voters.

Eisen noted that the majority opinion acknowledged the provision of the National Voter Registration Act that bars states from implementing systemic voter removal programs within 90 days of an election.

However, the justices noted that limited “individualized inquiries” could still proceed.

“Page 6 of the decision makes clear that we are in the 90 day statutory window when mass changes can’t be made to voter lists!” Eisen wrote on social media . “It’s a s‑‑‑ decision for the reasons the 3 dissenters say but we can deal w/it.”

The decision, which was unsigned and did not provide a vote count, was opposed by the court’s three liberal justices. It overturns a lower-court ruling that prevented the Trump administration from distributing this new system to states.

“The order below prevents the Federal Government from using the program it believes is best suited to the task,” the court wrote in its majority opinion.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson authored the 12-page dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

“In my view, however, the harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the Government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” Jackson wrote.