Supreme Court blocks Trump mail-ballot restrictions

The US Supreme Court has denied the Trump administration's request to lift an injunction blocking the Postal Service from enforcing new mail-in ballot restrictions prior to the November midterm elections. The court rejected the government's emergency appeal, stating that they are unlikely to succeed in their challenge to the lower court's injunction.

This ruling allows states to continue preparing and sending mail ballots using their established procedures for the elections on November 3rd. The contested Postal Service rule would have required election officials to submit lists of mail-ballot recipients, obtain approval for ballot-envelope designs, and use voter-specific barcodes on outgoing and return envelopes.

It would also have permitted the Postal Service to reject ballots that did not meet the new requirements or were associated with voters not listed. States and voting-rights groups argued that implementing this system before voting would risk delays or non-delivery of lawful ballots. Justice Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, while Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately that there was a fair chance the Postal Service had statutory authority to issue the rule but that election officials lacked sufficient time to implement it before the elections.

The administration had argued that the measures aimed to protect the mail system from potential voter fraud. The Postal Service described its approach as a non-partisan effort to ensure secure and reliable handling of election mail. Opponents contended that the rule intruded on state and congressional powers under the Constitution and imposed unreasonable operational demands on election administrators within a tight timeframe.

The injunction was first blocked by Judge Indira Talwani in Boston on September 4th, and a second federal judge, Carl Nichols, also blocked it on Sunday. The ongoing legal battle stems from a March executive order by President Trump directing federal agencies to tighten election procedures, including the handling of mail ballots.

The Postal Service finalized its rule in late August after previous litigation over the executive order itself. The Supreme Court lifted an earlier injunction against certain parts of Trump's order on August 24th but did not determine the lawfulness of the final Postal Service rule. The court left open the possibility of future challenges once the agency finalized its regulations.