California Refiles Suit on Mail Rules

Days after losing at the Supreme Court, California and allied states sued again, citing new USPS.

On Wednesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a second lawsuit aimed at protecting state authority over election administration, filed in federal court in Massachusetts on behalf of a group of Democratic-led states. The suit makes good on Governor Gavin Newsom's pledge to sue again immediately after the Supreme Court decision. The court's majority had essentially ruled that California sued too early, noting the administration had not yet issued formal rules affecting voting. That changed late last week when the Postal Service issued final rules requiring states to turn over a list of eligible mail voters, redesign ballot envelopes with USPS approval, and include new tracking barcodes. According to Times of San Diego (via CalMatters), LAist independently carried the same account of the filing and the USPS rules.

The surprise is that the same Supreme Court loss that looked like a defeat for mail-voting states became the legal pathway for a stronger challenge. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley Law School, wrote in a column that the justices' ruling was 'entirely procedural,' finding the case unripe because USPS had 'not yet issued regulations.' He argues the ruling ignored the context that the president has no constitutional authority over elections, citing Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent that the order involves 'a substantial and unfunded overhaul of election practices.' With USPS rules now final, the case is 'very much ripe for review,' per Chemerinsky's column.

Bonta called the Postal Service rules a 'clear violation of the Constitution,' which designates states as the primary authority over elections, per Times of San Diego. Under Trump's order, USPS would not deliver ballots to voters not in a federal database the administration wants to build, and would not deliver ballots in states that refuse to comply. The joining states argue that neither the president nor the Postal Service has constitutional authority to run elections, and that the changes will undermine mail-in voting — including for the more than 89% of California voters who used mail ballots in the latest June primary. 'President Trump doesn't get to rewrite our voting system on a whim,' Bonta said at a Wednesday press conference, as quoted in both Times of San Diego and LAist.

Trump has repeatedly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud, but Chemerinsky's column cites a 2017 Brennan Center study of 42 jurisdictions and more than 23.5 million votes that found only 30 investigated instances of noncitizen voting — 0.0001% of ballots cast. He also cites a Utah review of more than 2 million registered voters from April 2025 through January 2026 that found one noncitizen registration and zero instances of a noncitizen voting, and a 2024 Georgia audit of 8.2 million voters that found only 20 noncitizen registrations. Notably, the Tallahassee Democrat reports Trump himself has voted by mail in Florida.

The executive order faces a fragmented legal landscape: the Tallahassee Democrat reports a federal judge in Boston has blocked it for now, while Florida election officials say the November election will not be disrupted. Florida's Division of Elections says mail ballots for the Nov. 3 general election are being prepared as usual in all 67 counties, with an Oct. 22 request deadline and a 7 p.m. Nov. 3 return deadline. Gretl Plessinger, communications director for the Florida State Department, told the Tallahassee Democrat that 'Florida's vote-by-mail process has not been impacted by the executive order.' University of North Florida's Sean Freeder told the paper that changing longstanding practices weeks before ballots go out 'would be far too chaotic.' In the Aug. 18 primary, more than 1.2 million Florida mail ballots were cast.

Given the ongoing challenges, both Times of San Diego and LAist report it is unclear whether the Postal Service's new rule will affect the November elections. Chemerinsky warns that with midterms less than three months away, the Supreme Court's delay 'only creates confusion as to what rules will be followed.' The most likely path is a renewed trip to the high court, now with final USPS rules in place that address the ripeness problem the justices flagged. States that refuse compliance face the threat that USPS will not deliver ballots to voters outside the proposed federal database, so the litigation's pace will matter directly for county election offices preparing November mailings.