WASHINGTON—(SRN NEWS) The Supreme Court has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new Postal Service rule governing mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections, leaving in place a lower-court order that says the regulation is likely unlawful.
The court’s brief order, issued Monday, was a seven-to-two decision. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
The ruling is a setback for President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, who have argued that stronger verification procedures are needed to protect election integrity and prevent ballots from being sent to ineligible voters.
The administration’s regulation would have required states to submit information about mail-in voters to the Postal Service. Postal officials would then verify that ballots were being sent to people identified as eligible voters before delivering them. The rule also included requirements for ballot-envelope designs and other election-mail information.
Supporters of the regulation said those safeguards were a modest effort to improve accuracy and accountability in the nation’s election system. The administration also argued that the Postal Service had authority to impose the requirements and that the changes could help address concerns about ballot security.
But opponents, including several states and voting-rights groups, said the regulation came too close to Election Day and would create confusion for election officials and voters.
A federal district judge in Massachusetts blocked the rule after finding that enforcement could cause significant disenfranchisement. The judge also said the Postal Service could not refuse to deliver ballots based on the new requirements while the legal challenge continues.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority but wrote separately to say the rule may have a fair prospect of being legally authorized. Kavanaugh said the timing of the regulation was the decisive problem, arguing that implementing major changes just weeks before an election could disrupt voting even if the Postal Service ultimately prevailed on its legal authority.
Alito sharply disagreed. In his dissent, he said the federal government had the stronger legal argument and criticized the courts for allowing the dispute to reach the Supreme Court so close to Election Day. Alito wrote that concerns about implementation difficulties were not enough to justify blocking the rule.
The decision follows Republican frustration in Congress, where Senate leaders were unable to advance broader election-security legislation before the midterms. That proposal included additional voting requirements, including proof-of-citizenship provisions.
For now, states remain free to conduct mail voting under their existing procedures, and the Postal Service cannot withhold ballots because they fail to meet the blocked federal standards.
The ruling does not settle the broader legal questions surrounding the administration’s authority over election procedures. It does mean that any new federal mail-ballot requirements will not take effect for the upcoming midterm elections, putting the issue on hold as the legal battle continues.
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