The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to resume its expanded voter citizenship verification program, clearing the way for states to use Social Security records through the federal SAVE system to check the citizenship status of registered voters.

The administration expanded the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program to include Social Security records and allow bulk searches, giving state election officials a broader federal tool for reviewing voter rolls. President Donald Trump has made citizenship verification a central part of his election-integrity agenda.

The Supreme Court's emergency order allows the program to operate while the underlying legal dispute continues. The administration has argued that access to federal records will help states verify voter eligibility and protect against noncitizens being registered to vote.

The program had previously been blocked by a federal judge, and the D.C. Circuit declined to lift that restriction earlier this month. The administration then asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the lower court's decision improperly restricted the federal government's ability to respond to states seeking citizenship information.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the Supreme Court's decision.

The ruling comes less than two months before the November midterm elections and represents a significant step forward for Trump's effort to increase federal involvement in verifying voter eligibility. States are not required to use the system, and existing federal law limits certain voter-roll changes close to an election.