UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Top court hands Trump a temporary win in collecting sensitive voter data
Q1. The SAVE programme, whose revamped version was before the U.S. Supreme Court in September 2026, is best described as which one of the following?
- A. A Social Security Administration register that by itself conclusively settles the citizenship of every person listed on a State's voter roll
- B. A Department of Homeland Security verification service through which participating agencies check the immigration and citizenship status of applicants for benefits
- C. A State Department clearing house that alone certifies passport records for all federal benefit and entitlement programmes
- D. An Election Assistance Commission database that finally determines the eligibility of all registered voters in every State
Q2. In the revamp of the SAVE programme that was challenged in court, the administration sought to add to it, in addition to immigration records, the records held by which one of the following?
- A. The Internal Revenue Service, whose returns alone establish the residence of every registered voter
- B. The Census Bureau under the Department of Commerce, which maintains the only complete count of citizens
- C. The Social Security Administration, whose data the States were also to be allowed to search in bulk
- D. The Election Assistance Commission, which certifies all State voter registration systems
Q3. In the litigation over the revamped SAVE programme, which one of the following was the first judicial determination on the legality of the revamp?
- A. The June 2026 ruling of U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan holding the revamped programme unlawful
- B. The Supreme Court's emergency order of 25 September 2026 upholding the revamped programme on the merits
- C. The Supreme Court's August 2026 order holding that the challenging States lacked the right to sue
- D. The Supreme Court's September 2026 order allowing States to send out mail ballots as before
Q4. With reference to the U.S. Supreme Court's emergency order of 25 September 2026 on the SAVE programme, consider the following statements:
1. It was an emergency order that stayed a district court ruling pending further proceedings, without finally deciding the legality of the revamped programme.
2. Its practical effect before the November 2026 midterms is likely to be limited, because existing federal law bars most States from purging voters within 90 days of an election.
3. It permanently set aside the district court's finding that the revamped programme breached federal privacy law.
4. It permits States, for the time being, to use the programme to check voter eligibility.
Which of the statements given above is/are NOT correct?
- It was an emergency order that stayed a district court ruling pending further proceedings, without finally deciding the legality of the revamped programme.
- Its practical effect before the November 2026 midterms is likely to be limited, because existing federal law bars most States from purging voters within 90 days of an election.
- It permanently set aside the district court's finding that the revamped programme breached federal privacy law.
- It permits States, for the time being, to use the programme to check voter eligibility.
- A. 1 and 3
- B. 2 and 4
- C. 3 only
- D. 1, 3 and 4
Q5. Which one of the following was the principal ground on which the U.S. district court held the revamped SAVE programme unlawful?
- A. That it breached federal privacy law and exposed voters to wrongful cancellation of their registrations
- B. That it violated the Elections Clause by transferring the entire conduct of elections to the federal executive
- C. That it exceeded the agency's powers because States are wholly barred from removing any person from the voter rolls
- D. That it infringed the Fourteenth Amendment by denying birthright citizenship to all naturalised voters
Q6. In May 2026 the Supreme Court of India held that the Election Commission may undertake a 'limited scrutiny' of citizenship while revising electoral rolls. This expression is best understood to mean which one of the following?
- A. The Commission may examine citizenship only to decide inclusion in the roll, the consequences being confined to the roll alone
- B. The Commission may conclusively determine citizenship, and that determination binds the authorities functioning under the Citizenship Act
- C. The Commission may look into citizenship only for persons who have applied for citizenship, all other names being retained without enquiry
- D. The Commission may not enquire into citizenship at all, deletion being permissible only on a declaration by a central government authority
Q7. Under which provision of the U.S. Constitution are the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives to be prescribed by each State's legislature, subject to the power of Congress to make or alter such regulations?
- A. Article I, Section 5
- B. Article II, Section 1
- C. Article I, Section 4
- D. Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment
Q8. The executive order on elections that was litigated before the U.S. courts through 2026 is best described as one which does which of the following?
- A. Directs the administration to draw up lists of eligible voters and requires the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to persons on those lists
- B. Directs the Department of Homeland Security to deliver mail ballots to persons cleared by it and to bar all other postal voting
- C. Directs the State Department to prepare citizen lists from passport records and requires State legislatures to adopt them as their voter rolls
- D. Directs the Election Assistance Commission to compile national citizen lists and prohibits mail voting in federal elections altogether
Q9. The bar that prevents most U.S. States from carrying out systematic removals from the voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election is traceable to which one of the following statutes?
- A. The Voting Rights Act of 1965
- B. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993
- C. The Help America Vote Act of 2002
- D. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986
Q10. Consider the following statements about judicial review in the United States:
1. Marbury v. Madison (1803) was the first case in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared an Act of Congress unconstitutional, and the power of judicial review is not expressly conferred on the Court by the Constitution.
2. The doctrine laid down in that case came in time to be applied by State courts as well, reviewing State legislation against State constitutions.
3. The opinion in that case was delivered by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Marbury v. Madison (1803) was the first case in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared an Act of Congress unconstitutional, and the power of judicial review is not expressly conferred on the Court by the Constitution.
- The doctrine laid down in that case came in time to be applied by State courts as well, reviewing State legislation against State constitutions.
- The opinion in that case was delivered by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q11. Consider the following measures of the U.S. administration relating to voter verification and the bodies paired with them:
1. Opening passport services records to State and local officials for voter-eligibility checks — Department of Homeland Security
2. Operating the SAVE programme used to verify immigration and citizenship status — Department of Homeland Security
3. Delivering mail ballots only to persons appearing on federally prepared lists of eligible voters — United States Postal Service
4. Supplying the additional records that the revamped SAVE programme sought to draw upon, besides immigration records — Social Security Administration
Which of the above is/are NOT correctly matched?
- Opening passport services records to State and local officials for voter-eligibility checks — Department of Homeland Security
- Operating the SAVE programme used to verify immigration and citizenship status — Department of Homeland Security
- Delivering mail ballots only to persons appearing on federally prepared lists of eligible voters — United States Postal Service
- Supplying the additional records that the revamped SAVE programme sought to draw upon, besides immigration records — Social Security Administration
- A. 1 and 4
- B. 2 and 3
- C. 1, 3 and 4
- D. 1 only
Q12. Apart from Article 324 of the Constitution, the Election Commission of India has directed the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls chiefly in exercise of powers under which one of the following?
- A. Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950
- B. Section 62 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which alone regulates every revision of electoral rolls
- C. Rule 25 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, which is the sole source of the Commission's revision powers
- D. Section 14 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, under which all electoral entries are finally determined