Supreme Court blocks Trump’s latest attempt to impose new mail-in voting rules ahead of midterms

The Supreme Court has once again temporarily blocked a Trump administration initiative to change the rules for mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections. Through the United States Postal Service (USPS), President Donald Trump sought to have states provide more information about voters receiving ballots and implement new mechanisms to track mailings.

In late August, the USPS published a 95-page regulation establishing new rules for mailing ballots before the midterm elections. The rules sought to establish a system whereby states would be required to notify the USPS if they intended to use the mail to distribute ballots and, subsequently, provide information about the voters who would receive those mailings.

However, implementation of the new rules was suspended after a federal judge temporarily blocked their enforcement, ruling that the Trump administration may have exceeded its authority. Subsequently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld the injunction, prompting the White House to appeal to the nation's highest court.

In this context, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's request to lift the injunction that prevents the USPS from implementing the new rules before the November midterm elections.

The Court did not rule that the rules are definitively unconstitutional nor did it rule on the merits of the case; rather, it decided to uphold the injunction imposed by the lower courts on the grounds that there are insufficient reasons to lift it. The decision means that the new rules cannot be applied to the November elections while the litigation continues.

The ruling was decided by a 7-2 vote, and only Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas publicly dissented. "The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction," the ruling states.

"In my view, based on the briefing the Court has received at this interim stage, there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s 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," wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh in a concurring opinion.

For his part, Justice Alito wrote the following, with the support of Thomas: "The Court incorrectly denies the Government’s application for a stay of a universal injunction that bars implementation of a final rule concerning election ballot mail."