Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling clears Trump mail-in ballot order

The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling cleared a legal hurdle to Trump's mail-in ballot order, though a separate nationwide injunction still blocks enforcement.

The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling Monday cleared a legal hurdle to President Trump's executive order restricting mail-in ballots, saying roughly two dozen Democratic-run states sued prematurely before the U.S. Postal Service finalized its implementing rule.

"Today's decision merely postpones adjudication of those challenges," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Elena Kagan. "Nor does it suggest that the Executive Branch has any constitutional or statutory authority to implement the President's directives."

The unsigned 10-page opinion said the states lacked standing because the order was an "internal directive" that didn't regulate state voter registration processes. The ruling applies to U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's June injunction covering 23 states plus Washington, D.C., but a separate nationwide block from the League of Women Voters case remains in effect. The Postal Service's 95-page final rule, issued Friday, acknowledges it won't take effect while those injunctions stand.

With midterm elections set for Nov. 3, the administration faces a shrinking window to implement the order. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that implementation needed to begin by early-to-mid August to be effective for the 2026 election, and the Postal Service's final rule is set to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.

Trump issued the executive order on March 31, directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state and calling for the Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots only to voters on state-approved lists. The order also mandated barcode requirements on ballot envelopes and instructed the Justice Department to prioritize prosecutions of illegal ballot distribution.

The ruling is the latest in a broader legal fight over the order, which Trump has defended as necessary to stop noncitizen voting — a practice research has found to be infinitesimally rare. His push for the SAVE America Act, which would impose proof-of-citizenship requirements and voter ID nationwide, has so far failed in Congress, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune saying the bill lacks support.

The USPS Rule Is the Real Battleground

The critical question now turns on the Postal Service's final rule, which requires states to submit names and addresses of voters receiving mail ballots as a condition of ballot delivery. Judge Talwani has already indicated she is inclined to block that rule in the League of Women Voters case, for the same reasons she enjoined the executive order, with any opposition from the government due by 8 a.m. ET Tuesday.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a separate dissent, said the majority's decision "needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty" into the midterms, calling the court's procedural rules for election cases a "Kafkaesque nightmare" in which some challenges are deemed too early and others too late.

A Shrinking Window Before Nov. 3

The administration has acknowledged the practical constraints. In a July court filing, Sauer noted that "implementation efforts for any USPS rule or DHS policy will need to begin well before November—indeed, as soon as early to mid-August—to be effective for the 2026 election." The Postal Service, chronically underfunded, faces a tall order with just months to go before Election Day.

The court's decision is provisional, focusing only on whether Talwani acted prematurely. "The court's disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the order will necessarily be lawful," the unsigned ruling said. "On that score, time will tell."

The matter will likely return to the justices before Nov. 3, with the League of Women Voters case and the fate of the Postal Service rule still unresolved. If the rule is blocked, the administration's ability to enforce the order this cycle would be effectively neutralized; if it survives, states and voting rights groups face a scramble to adjust ballot procedures weeks before voting begins.

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