A new U.S. Postal Service, USPS, rule that could have tightened the handling of mail-in ballots remains blocked ahead of November’s midterm elections after the Supreme Court declined to clear its implementation.
The court’s decision leaves in place a lower-court injunction preventing the Postal Service from enforcing the rule, which would require states to provide voter lists and use specially approved ballot envelopes with unique barcodes.
The justices rejected the Justice Department’s request to lift a ruling by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who blocked the Postal Service from enforcing the measure while legal challenges by states and voting-rights groups proceed.
The agency adopted the rule after President Donald Trump issued a March executive order seeking to tighten regulations governing mail voting.
“The government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction,” the Supreme Court said in a brief, one-paragraph order.
Under the rule, states would have been required to provide the Postal Service with lists of mail-ballot recipients and use agency-approved outbound and return ballot envelopes equipped with unique barcodes.
The Postal Service would then have been able to refuse to send ballots that did not comply with the new standards or were associated with voters whose names did not appear on the lists.
Critics have argued that the measure could disrupt the delivery of thousands of legitimate ballots as the November 3 election approaches, creating confusion as many states prepare to send mail ballots to eligible voters.
The administration has said the rule is intended to prevent voter fraud, although evidence of widespread mail-voting fraud is rare.
Talwani issued an injunction on September 4 blocking the rule, finding that it likely violated the U.S. Constitution, which gives states a central role in administering elections. She also said states would not have enough time to comply with the measure before the midterm elections.
Sophia Lin Lakin, voting rights project director at the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped represent some of the groups challenging the USPS rule, welcomed the 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.
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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.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state led one of the lawsuits against the rule, also welcomed the decision.
“Today is a good day for democracy, the rule of law and the American people looking to exercise their constitutional right to vote,” Newsom said. He added that Trump’s “attacks on democracy these last 20 months have been nothing short of un-American.”
Trump signed the executive order targeting mail-in ballots after years of questioning their security, although he has also voted by mail.
He has repeatedly made false claims of widespread fraud in U.S. elections, including the 2020 election, which he lost to former Democratic President Joe Biden.
The administration had urged the Supreme Court in an emergency request filed on September 6 to allow it to implement what it described as an “important federal policy to protect the mails from being used to commit voter fraud.”
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring statement, said there was a “fair prospect” that the rule falls 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 compared 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.
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 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday refused to put Talwani’s order on hold. The appeals court 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 midterm elections.
On August 24, the Supreme Court lifted an earlier injunction issued by Talwani in June that had blocked Trump’s executive order, including the USPS rule, before the measure was finalized.
REUTERS
