{"id":835461,"date":"2026-09-03T21:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/835461\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:32:12","slug":"doj-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-trumps-usps-action-on-mail-in-ballots-to-proceed-ahead-of-midterm-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/835461\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ asks Supreme Court to allow Trump\u2019s USPS action on mail-in ballots to proceed ahead of midterm elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to green-light a new Postal Service rule that would exert control over mail-in ballots<\/a> ahead of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

The appeal to the high court comes after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking parts of the rule from being implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to the November 2026 election, the order thus partially nullifies the Postal Service\u2019s efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud, a particularly pernicious species of fraud that dilutes the votes of lawful voters, prevents election results from reflecting the will of the American people, and undermines \u2018public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process,\u2019\u201d Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the application. <\/p>\n

While Talwani\u2019s order \u201callows the Postal Service and the States to continue taking steps to ensure that their envelopes satisfy the rule\u2019s requirements, the order risks sowing confusion and chaos because it makes those preparatory steps voluntary, rather than mandatory,\u201d Sauer wrote. <\/p>\n

There is a \u201cgrave risk,\u201d Sauer writes, \u201cthat States may not have taken the necessary steps to comply due to the false sense of latitude created by the court\u2019s improper order, potentially depriving those States\u2019 citizens of the ability to vote by mail.\u201d <\/p>\n

It seeks an immediate stay of Talwani\u2019s order while the case proceeds through the appeals court. <\/p>\n

The timing of the request was unexpected, since the administration already had a pending appeal of the order to the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and because Talwani was expected to rule Thursday on whether to issue a preliminary injunction in the case. <\/p>\n

In her ruling last week<\/a>, the judge sided with states and voting rights groups that claimed the rule unlawfully usurped states\u2019 power to regulate their own elections, which is something that would need congressional approval, and left them facing an \u201cimpossible\u201d timeline to comply in time for the November elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the Final Rule, the USPS is refusing to send mail ballots to eligible voters unless States or local election officials submit their mail ballot envelopes and return envelopes and receive advance approval from the USPS without regard to impending deadlines for the November 3, 2026 election,\u201d the judge wrote. <\/p>\n

It also \u201crequires elections officials to create accounts for a new electronic portal, certify that they have received approval regarding the mail ballot design, and thereafter upload to the USPS portal each voter\u2019s information, including name, address, and a unique intelligent mail barcode,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the record presently before the court, Plaintiff States face irreparable harm where they are required to comply with a likely unconstitutional regulation for which compliance is practically impossible as to the 2026 midterm elections, now little more than two months away,\u201d Talwani wrote.<\/p>\n

She said most states have already ordered their mail ballots \u201cand some are required by state law to send them to eligible voters as early as next week.\u201d North Carolina is scheduled to begin mailing out ballots Friday.<\/p>\n

The states, she added, \u201chave neither time nor funds to design new mail ballots, seek approval of the new designs, order production of mail ballots, update their own election management systems, train election officials to use the USPS portal, and upload citizen data to the portal, all before the midterms.\u201d <\/p>\n

While the government has said the measure is necessary to combat voter fraud, Talwani said it had not presented \u201cany evidence regarding fraudulent absentee or mail-in voting.\u201d <\/p>\n

The \u201cUSPS\u2019s interest in correcting an unsubstantiated problem through likely unconstitutional means is dwarfed by the overwhelming risk of pervasive disenfranchisement of citizens who need access to mail ballots in order to vote,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

The rule change came about as the result of an executive order <\/a>issued by President Donald Trump on March 31 titled \u201cEnsuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talwani had signed off on an earlier order in a related case barring the rule from being implemented, but that ruling was overturned last month by the Supreme Court<\/a>, which found her decision was premature because the rule had not yet been finalized. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell,\u201d the court said in an unsigned 6-3 ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rule was finalized late last month. <\/p>\n

In court filings, the government said the changes that are being implemented are \u201cmodest.\u201d <\/p>\n

The rule simply turns \u201clongstanding recommendations\u2014which many of the Plaintiff States have already adopted at least in part, and some have long advocated for\u2014into requirements,\u201d the government argued. <\/p>\n

It added that \u201cthis is ultimately a regulation of the U.S. mail, and a modest one at that\u2014not a federal takeover of election administration by the Postal Service. That basic reality undermines virtually all of Plaintiffs\u2019 claims and illustrates why Defendants are likely to succeed on the merits of their appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to green-light a new Postal Service rule that would exert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-835461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}