Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Third Bid to Revive His Mail-In Voting Rule

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's third emergency bid to revive its mail-in voting rule for the midterms, voting 7-2 to leave in place U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's injunction blocking the U.S. Postal Service from implementing it. The court's brief, unsigned order found the government "unlikely to succeed on the merits" of its challenge to Talwani's block. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, wrote separately that while the rule might be lawful in principle, applying it for the 2026 elections would violate the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local officials lack time to implement it. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented.

The USPS rule would have required states to upload voter lists and meet new ballot-envelope design requirements before mail ballots could be delivered; opponents warned it risked disenfranchising millions, since roughly a third of the country votes by mail. It is a rare loss for the administration on the Court's emergency docket, which has more often sided with Trump.

Talwani's injunction remains in force. Separately, Judge Carl Nichols issued his own nationwide block of the rule Sunday in a related case that had not yet reached the Supreme Court.