Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) moved to impeach Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan after she shut down a Trump administration tool designed to help states verify voters’ citizenship. The Arizona Republican accused the Trinidad-born judge of abusing her authority and turning the federal bench into a weapon against the elected executive branch. His resolution seeks Sooknanan’s removal from office and permanent disqualification from holding another federal position.
The fight stems from Sooknanan’s June 22nd ruling in League of Women Voters v. Department of Homeland Security. Sooknanan invalidated the Trump administration’s modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as SAVE, which allowed state officials to search federal citizenship records and Social Security data when reviewing voter rolls. Hamadeh first announced his impeachment push on X before formally submitting a five-article resolution in the House.
“I’m filing articles of impeachment against ‘Judge’ Sparkle L. Sooknanan,” Hamadeh wrote. “Her power grab against President Trump cannot be tolerated. Rogue judges like her are destroying the rule of law while communists undermine America.” He then turned directly to the election-integrity dispute that produced the judge’s ruling.
“We have the RIGHT to know that only AMERICANS are voting in our elections,” Hamadeh continued in his July 6th X post. “Americans elected Trump to lead, not the rogue judges who are behaving as activists for the communists cloaked in their black robes.” The congressman’s office followed the announcement by accusing Sooknanan of disregarding the constitutional separation of powers.
“Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan’s egregious overreaching ruling blocking President Trump’s common-sense effort to verify the citizenship of those who want to vote in our elections was the final straw,” Hamadeh said in an official statement. He called the decision “a blatant and unlawful subversion of the President’s executive authority and a direct assault on election integrity.” Hamadeh added, “Judges who weaponize their bench to interfere with the President’s constitutional duties must be held accountable.”
Hamadeh submitted House Resolution 1421 on July 9th, and it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Its five articles accuse Sooknanan of abuse of judicial authority, usurpation of executive authority, disregard for the separation of powers, exceeding Article III authority, and undermining confidence in the judiciary. “The Framers did not establish the judiciary as a super-legislature empowered to veto executive actions based on policy disagreements,” the resolution states.
Sooknanan was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1983, and Hamadeh’s office identified her as a dual citizen of the United States and Trinidad and Tobago. According to her Federal Judicial Center biography, Joe Biden nominated her to the District Court for the District of Columbia on February 27th, 2024. The Senate confirmed her on December 3rd, 2024, and she received her commission on January 2nd, 2025, following previous service in Biden’s Justice Department and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
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In her 75-page decision, Sooknanan ruled that the administration’s SAVE overhaul violated the Privacy Act, Social Security Act, and Administrative Procedure Act. The judge argued that the expanded database exposed sensitive information and risked incorrectly identifying lawful citizens as noncitizens. “The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” she wrote, according to Reuters.
The Trump administration disputed Sooknanan’s conclusions and appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Hamadeh’s resolution argues that impeachment is the constitutional remedy for judges who exceed their proper role and concentrate unchecked power in the judiciary. It concludes that Sooknanan “warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.”