Blow To Trump: Supreme Court Blocks Postal Service Rule Restricting Mail-In Ballots Ahead of Midterm Elections

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to allow the US Postal Service to enforce a rule targeting mail-in ballots, dealing a setback to efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to restrict voting by mail ahead of November’s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress.

 

The justices denied the Justice Department’s request to lift a ruling by Boston-based US District Judge Indira Talwani, who blocked the Postal Service from enforcing the measure while legal challenges brought by states and voting-rights groups proceed. The agency adopted the measure after Trump issued a March executive order aimed at tightening rules governing mail voting.

 

“The government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction,” the court said in its brief, one-paragraph order.

 

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented from Monday’s decision. No other justice publicly dissented. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

 

Trump’s fellow Republicans are locked in a close battle to retain control of Congress in the midterms. Restricting mail-in ballots could benefit Republicans because Democratic voters disproportionately use mail-in voting, according to various surveys.

 

Under the rule, states would have to provide lists of mail-ballot recipients to the Postal Service and use agency-approved outbound and return ballot envelopes equipped with unique barcodes. The Postal Service could then refuse to send ballots that did not comply with the new standards or were associated with voters who did not appear on the lists.

 

Critics have said the plan could disrupt the delivery of thousands of legitimate ballots as the November 3 vote approaches and create chaos because many states were preparing to send mail ballots to eligible voters. The administration has said the new rule would help prevent voter fraud, although evidence of widespread such fraud is rare.

 

Talwani imposed an injunction on September 4 blocking the rule, finding that it likely violated the US Constitution, under which states administer elections. She also said it would be impossible for states to comply with the requirements given the rapidly approaching midterm elections.

 

Another federal judge, Washington, D.C.-based US District Judge Carl Nichols, also ruled against the rule on Sunday.

 

'Testing the Limits'

 

Sophia Lin Lakin, voting rights project director at the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped represent some of the challengers to the USPS rule, welcomed Monday’s decision.

 

“This administration keeps testing the limits of its power, as if the rules governing our elections are merely suggestions to ignore when they don’t suit the president’s agenda. But the Constitution gives states and Congress the power to set the rules for federal elections — not the president, and not the Postal Service,” she said.

 

“Today is a good day for democracy, the rule of law and the American people looking to exercise their constitutional right to vote,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state led one of the lawsuits challenging the rule.

 

“Trump’s attacks on democracy these last 20 months have been nothing short of un-American,” Newsom added.

 

Trump signed his executive order targeting mail-in ballots after years of casting doubt on their security, although he often votes by mail himself. Trump has also made false claims of widespread fraud in US elections, including his 2020 loss to former Democratic President Joe Biden.

 

In an emergency request filed on September 6, the administration urged the Supreme Court to allow it to implement what it called an “important federal policy to protect the mails from being used to commit voter fraud”.

 

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring statement on Monday, said there was a “fair prospect” that the rule fell within the Postal Service’s authority. However, he said state and local election officials did not have sufficient time to reasonably implement it before the 2026 elections.

 

In his dissent, Alito likened some of the challengers’ claims to a “Hail Mary pass” that was “unlikely to be successfully completed”, using a football analogy.

 

“The Postal Service has broad authority to regulate the mail,” Alito added.

 

States Challenged the Rule

 

A coalition of states, most of them governed by Democrats, along with Washington, D.C., and several voting-rights groups challenged the new USPS rule.

 

The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals refused last Thursday to put Talwani’s order on hold. The 1st Circuit said the rule “will likely result in the disenfranchisement of millions of voters across the country while providing minimal — if any — gains in combating voter fraud”.

 

The dispute over mail ballots is part of a broader series of efforts by the administration to increase federal involvement in voting ahead of the midterms. On August 24, the Supreme Court lifted an earlier injunction imposed by Talwani in June that had blocked Trump’s executive order, including the USPS rule before it had been finalised.