US Supreme Court blocks Trump mail-in ballot restrictions

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a major blow Monday to President Donald Trump's attempts to restrict mail-in voting before the November midterm elections, denying his request to lift an order halting the divisive plan.

Only two of the six conservative justices on the nine-member panel offered a dissent.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion with the majority, said Trump's plan may ultimately be legal in the long run, but "state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections."

After the decision came down, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the president's "plan to make it harder to vote was obviously unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had no choice but to make the right decision." His counterpart in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, said the court had blocked Trump's "diabolical scheme" to restrict mail-in ballots. "Democracy won. And far-right extremists lost," he posted on X.

Several states, including North Carolina, have already begun sending mail-in ballots to voters.

Trump signed an executive order in March seeking to restrict mail-in voting, saying without evidence that it is vulnerable to fraud. The order quickly prompted multiple legal challenges.

Democratic-led states sued the administration on grounds that under the US Constitution, states — and not the federal government — retain broad control over the administration of elections.

USPS whistleblower

Trump's executive order would require the compilation of lists of eligible voters and for the US Postal Service (USPS) to deliver ballots only to voters who are on the lists.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hailed the Supreme Court's decision as a "major win for voting rights, election integrity, and democracy."

"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," said Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

"The president does not run our elections, the Postal Service does not get to decide whose ballot counts, and voters — not the White House — will decide November's elections."

Officials from several states had warned that a lack of legal clarity around the plan was sowing chaos months before the November 3 vote.

A USPS whistleblower had also warned that millions of Americans may not receive ballots because the systems being used by the postal service have been put together in a "sloppy and rushed manner."

Trump has long been a critic of mail-in ballots but has frequently used them himself, including when he voted by mail in Florida's Republican primary earlier this year.

The president has for years claimed without evidence that mail-in voting is highly vulnerable to fraud, repeatedly linking it to his false assertion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Democrat Joe Biden.

Polls show that Trump's Republican Party faces a serious threat of losing its narrow control of Congress in November, particularly the House of Representatives.

If Democrats win, they have signaled they would block Trump's agenda and could even move to impeach him for the third time.