The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the administration of President Donald Trump by voting 6-3 along ideological lines to lift a lower court injunction that blocked key directives from an executive order restricting mail-in voting, according to NPR. The high court’s decision affects about two dozen states and Washington, D.C., as the country approaches this fall’s midterm elections.
Supreme Court Pauses Lower Court Ruling on Trump Mail Voting Order
The emergency relief granted by the Supreme Court allows the administration and 12 Republican-led states to move forward while litigation continues, as reported by Boisestatepublicradio.org. However, the high court did not decide the underlying legality of Trump’s executive order, leaving open the possibility of additional court challenges.
Directives and Legal Background of the Order
President Trump signed the executive order in March, calling for the Department of Homeland Security to develop state lists of adult U.S. citizens and directing the U.S. Postal Service to obtain lists of eligible mail voters from states, according to NPR. Under the order, the Postal Service is instructed to deliver mail-in ballots only to individuals on those lists, and election officials are required to include specific barcodes on mail ballot envelopes.
Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia challenged the order in a lawsuit, arguing that the U.S. Constitution gives power to state legislatures and Congress to set federal election rules rather than the president, as noted by The Guardian. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts sided with the plaintiff states in June, concluding that Trump overstepped presidential authority and that the Postal Service lacks legal authority to control mail-in voting, per NPR. An appeals court subsequently upheld the decision, and Talwani later issued a second injunction with nationwide effect, according to The Guardian.
The Supreme Court’s three liberal justices dissented from the decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Elena Kagan that the structure of the executive order, government representations, and equities weighed against emergency relief, according to Boisestatepublicradio.org.
Midterm Hurdles and Implementation Challenges
With the start of absentee voting for the midterms only weeks away, practical hurdles and a shrinking window of opportunity face federal agencies attempting to carry out Trump’s directives, as reported by NPR. The Postal Service has released a final rule for federal ballot mail in response to the order, according to NPR. Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame University, described the situation as just the first inning of a very fast nine-inning game,
noting that further litigation could potentially freeze the federal government again, according to Yahoo.com.
Trump stated that he issued the order to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens in federal elections. Research has found noncitizen voting to be infinitesimally rare, and federal data shows that mail voting has grown in popularity, with about 30% of all ballots cast by mail during the 2024 presidential election, according to Yahoo.com. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found roughly four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail ballots cast, per The Guardian.
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