Yellow Jacket InitiativeBy E. Lawrence Anderson, Yellow Jacket Initiative
On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, the Social Security Administration published a notice modifying one of its largest record systems: "Master Files of Social Security Number (SSN) Holders and SSN Applications," system number 60-0058 (91 FR 69297, FR Doc 2026-22356, Docket SSA-2026-0760). The file holds the records SSA uses to assign Social Security numbers. It includes "a citizenship code that identifies the number holder's status as a U.S. citizen" or work authorization. Every quotation below was checked on November 3, 2026, against the published notice, the November 2025 notice it follows, and the court orders cited.
SSA's description, first.
SSA describes routine changes. It clarifies where the records are kept and which office manages them. It rewords seven existing routine uses (Nos. 6, 7, 10, 12, 17, 25 and 45) "for easier reading," deletes routine use No. 2 "as it is duplicative," and corrects "typographical errors." It adds record sources: "Federal contractors and vendors," and two existing SSA systems, the Claims Folders System and the Master Beneficiary Record. And it adds one new routine use, letting SSA disclose to the Treasury Department's Do Not Pay Working System "for the purpose of identifying, preventing, or recouping fraud and improper payments."
What the notice does not mention.
The notice says the system was "last published on February 20, 2025." On November 12, 2025, SSA published a modification of the same system (90 FR 50879). That notice described the same clarifications and the same deletion of routine use No. 2. It also said the system was "last published on February 20, 2025." It added two routine uses. One was Do Not Pay. The other, routine use 49, read:
"To DHS, information regarding the citizenship and immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual pursuant to 8 U.S.C. 1373(a)."
The November 3, 2026 notice adds only one new routine use, Do Not Pay. Its text does not contain "1373" anywhere. Its routine uses run to 48; the November 2025 version's ran to 50. The new notice does not mention routine use 49 and does not say why it is absent.
What the court record shows.
The November 2025 notice was part of a lawsuit over DHS's citizenship-check system, SAVE: League of Women Voters v. DHS, No. 1:25-cv-03501 (D.D.C.). On June 22, 2026, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan's order "vacates and sets aside the November 2025 Social Security Administration Notice of a Modified System of Records for the Master Files of Social Security Number Holders and Social Security Number Applications," citing 90 FR 50879. The same order set aside DHS's October 2025 SAVE notice and the modified SAVE system. Her opinion names routine use 49 in its account of the case.
On September 25, the Supreme Court stayed that order pending the government's appeal to the D.C. Circuit and any petition for review (No. 26A308). Its unsigned opinion said the government is likely to win on the merits, reading 8 U.S.C. 1373 as likely overriding disclosure limits in the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act (our post on that ruling). On September 29, the district court wrote that while the stay remains in effect, it "cannot grant the requested relief compelling compliance" with its June 22 order. The docket, as mirrored on CourtListener and checked November 3, shows no later entry.
The new SSA notice does not mention the case, the June 22 order, or the stay.
What stays.
Other disclosures to DHS remain. A routine use under section 290(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1360(b)), "to identify and locate aliens in the United States," is still there, now numbered 3. So is the routine use for verifying voter-registration information under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, now No. 35. The file still records a citizenship code for each number holder.
Possible explanations the notice does not give.
Two readings fit the record, and the notice states neither. First, SSA may be republishing from the last version not touched by the June 22 order, which would explain the February 20, 2025 date; but that order is stayed, and the notice does not say so. Second, section 1373(a) opens with "Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law," and the Supreme Court's stay opinion read section 1373 as likely overriding Privacy Act limits, so SSA may take the view that sharing under it needs no routine use. We do not know which, if either, is right, and we do not suggest a reason.
Dates.
The notice applies from publication on Tuesday, November 3, except for the new routine use, which takes effect Thursday, December 3, 2026. Comments are due the same day, December 3, under Docket SSA-2026-0760 at regulations.gov.
Why this matters.
The modified SAVE system lets state and local officials check the citizenship of registered voters against SSA records, including Social Security numbers, and in bulk; that is how the district court's opinion describes it. A routine use is the public, written basis for an agency's disclosures from a Privacy Act system. Whether DHS gets citizenship status from this file under a published routine use, or on some other basis, changes what the public can check. The new notice shows what SSA now publishes. It does not show what SSA is sharing.
A note on our earlier post.
Our October 30 post on SSA's new Client Data System cited the November 12, 2025 version of 60-0058 as the current notice. That version was in effect, under the Supreme Court's stay, when the post was published. A dated note on that post now points here.
What is not established.
Whether SSA treats routine use 49 as withdrawn, as set aside, or as still in force. Whether DHS still receives citizenship status from this file, under section 1373(a) directly or through SAVE. Why SSA describes February 20, 2025 as the last publication. The status of the D.C. Circuit appeal (No. 26-5243), which we have not read. We compared the two notices by text search, not a line-by-line comparison of all 48 routine uses.
Primary sources: Social Security Administration, Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records, Master Files of SSN Holders and SSN Applications (60-0058), 91 FR 69297 (Nov. 3, 2026) (PDF). The notice it follows: 90 FR 50879 (Nov. 12, 2025), FR Doc 2025-19849. Court: Order, League of Women Voters v. DHS, No. 1:25-cv-03501 (D.D.C. June 22, 2026), ECF 112; Memorandum Opinion, ECF 111; docket on CourtListener.
Read the text.
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