Supreme Court won’t let Trump restrict mail-in ballots ahead of midterms
Kelsey Reichmann
WASHINGTON (CN) — Rejecting President Donald Trump’s demand, the Supreme Court on Monday halted restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the November election.
Trump has repeatedly pushed the justices to greenlight his U.S. Postal Service voter verification plan by touting baseless election fraud claims. A lower court found the threat to disenfranchise millions of voters ahead of the 2026 election was too great, putting any changes to mail-in ballots on hold.
The Supreme Court refused to lift the lower court order. In a brief unsigned statement, the justices said the government was unlikely to prevail in its challenge to the preliminary injunction and that equitable factors did not favor a stay.
Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, and Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, dissented. Writing for the pair, Alito said the government demonstrated the lower court’s order inflicted enough harm to warrant emergency intervention from the justices.
“The government has a strong interest in enforcing the rule, and implementing it will also ‘enhance the visibility of federal ballot mail’ in order to better detect election fraud,” Alito wrote. “On the other side of the balance, the plaintiff states invoke the practical effects of implementing the rule close to the midterm elections. I take that problem very seriously, but it is not enough to convince me to deny the application.”
Alito also said lawsuits from voting rights groups and Democratic states suffered from technical legal errors, making them unlikely to proceed.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, penned a short concurrence, noting “there is at least a fair prospect” that Trump’s order could fall under USPS’ statutory authority.
“But applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections,” Kavanaugh wrote.
Trump signed an executive order in April that would create lists of eligible voters in each state and instruct the USPS to deliver mail ballots only to verified voters. Under the “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” order, states would be required to update mail ballots with secure envelopes featuring unique tracking barcodes. Federal funding could be withheld from states and localities that do not comply.
Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia challenged the proposed changes as unlawful and argued they would lead to chaos in the upcoming election. Led by California, Democratic officials argued the proposed changes posed a high risk of errors and a limited window to correct them. They claimed the voter verification and ballot interception program was “disastrous from a practical perspective” and would likely disenfranchise voters.
State officials warned the justices that allowing the USPS rule to take effect for the November election would be an “unmitigated disaster.”
Voting rights groups challenging the rule celebrated Monday’s Supreme Court order as a win for election integrity and democracy.
“The Postal Service exists to deliver Americans’ mail — not to rewrite election rules, demand voters’ personal information, or decide which ballots make it through the system,” Celina Stewart, chief executive officer of the League of Women Voters, said in a statement. “This was an extraordinary attempt to interfere with voting in all 50 states, and voters should never have been put in this position. Voters should never be caught in the middle of a political power warfare.”
A Massachusetts court blocked key sections of the order in June, but the Supreme Court reversed in August. In an unsigned order, the conservative justices found the states’ challenge came too early, determining the government hadn’t taken action to enforce the order.
Since then, the USPS published a rule requiring states to use new, scannable ballot envelopes. The government said it would not deliver mail ballots to states that do not share voter data with the agency, and it would deliver only ballots that met certain criteria.
A lower court issued another temporary restraining order days after the Supreme Court’s August ruling, preventing any additional USPS changes while considering an amended complaint from Democratic officials.
The Trump administration rushed to the Supreme Court, calling for U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s order to be stayed. But before the justices could intervene, Talwani issued a preliminary injunction based on the amended complaint.
In a flurry of filings over Labor Day weekend, the Trump administration withdrew its application for a temporary restraining order and filed a new emergency appeal on the preliminary injunction.
The Trump administration rebutted claims that the USPS was trying to federalize rules for mail-in voting, arguing the rule “imposes only modest envelope design and addressee information requirements for federal election ballots sent via U.S. mail.”
Democratic officials scoffed at the Trump administration’s characterization. They noted voters would need to register in a new untested USPS online portal, barcodes would need to be printed on outgoing and return ballot envelopes, and each barcode would need to match the appropriate voter within the portal.
“The efforts that state and local elections officials would have to undertake to even begin an attempt at compliance are herculean,” the states wrote. “Among other things, officials would have to obtain USPS approval of new ballot-envelope designs on an unprecedented timetable; purchase new envelopes to replace those already ordered (if they can find vendors who can fulfill last-minute orders, which is doubtful); develop and upgrade technological systems to generate [Intelligent Mail barcodes]; upload voter-specific information to the portal; ensure that ballots have the proper [Intelligent Mail barcode] for each recipient; and train state and local officials on how to undertake these tasks.”