Trump Administration Goes to the Supreme Court a Third Time in Six Weeks to Revive Its Mail-Ballot Rule as States Start Mailing Ballots

On Sunday, September 6, 2026, Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed a new emergency application asking the Supreme Court to stay Judge Indira Talwani's September 4 preliminary injunction against the Postal Service's mail-ballot rule, and withdrew the application filed three days earlier against her expiring temporary restraining order. It is the third time in under six weeks the administration has asked the justices to clear the rule, which stems from Trump's March executive order and imposes envelope-design and voter-data portal requirements on states. Sauer called Talwani's reasoning "minimal, conclusory" and "simplistic" and argued the rule does not federalize elections.

The rapid-fire filings put the Court in the position of deciding, on an emergency basis and with ballots already in the mail, whether the federal government may condition states' use of the postal system on new federal requirements. Talwani had found the rule threatens the disenfranchisement of millions of mail voters if imposed less than 70 days before the election.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ordered the 23 challenging states and D.C. to respond by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, September 9. North Carolina has begun mailing ballots and Alabama was due to start September 9.