Trump Attacks His Own Supreme Court Picks After Ballot Ruling

President Trump publicly assailed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett as a 'shell' after the Court blocked his mail ballot rules for the midterms.

In a lengthy Truth Social post on Tuesday, President Trump blasted the Supreme Court for blocking a new Postal Service rule on mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterms, calling the ruling 'a big loss for Republicans, and America itself.' He harshly criticized his three appointees — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — writing that 'these are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves.' He praised Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, the two dissenters, as 'legends both.'

The outburst targets the very justices Trump installed, who have delivered him sweeping wins on presidential power, immigration and transgender sports, as Time Magazine recounts. Legal experts told Bloomberg Law that the appointees stayed consistent with past positions: Kavanaugh has long emphasized timing on election issues, while Barrett has twice voted to curb executive overreach in the tariffs and birthright citizenship cases. 'His legal principles led him somewhere his policy preferences might not,' former Scalia clerk Richard Bernstein told Bloomberg Law of Gorsuch's likely major-questions concerns.

The unsigned Monday order left a preliminary injunction in place, concluding the government 'is unlikely to succeed on the merits.' Kavanaugh concurred that applying the rule this year would be unlawful because state and local officials lack time to implement it, while Alito's dissent read the Postal Service's rulemaking authority broadly. According to Democracy Docket, even Trump-appointed District Court Judge Carl Nichols found no record evidence that significant fraud would occur without the rule, though Alito wrote that implementing it would better detect election fraud.

About one-third of eligible Americans vote by mail, and the Brennan Center for Justice says the blocked order would have forced states to upload personal voter data into a new federal portal that an anonymous USPS whistleblower warned was created through a 'rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process.' The Brennan Center, which represents the challenging voter groups, called the ruling a major victory letting voters cast mail ballots with confidence this fall.

Local officials expressed relief and told Governing they are standing down contingency plans; Weber County, Utah clerk Ricky Hatch had been booking in-person voting centers as a fallback. In Mesa County, Colorado, clerk Bobbie Gross said ballots go out October 2 with no changes for voters, who can also use eight 24-hour drop boxes. According to Governing, Kathy Boockvar of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections said 90 percent of jurisdictions running her tabletop exercises had requested postal-service scenarios, and officials are now steering voters toward drop boxes amid USPS-related mail delays.

The ruling does not end the fight. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the administration will comply but that 'efforts to tighten rules around mail-in voting will continue beyond November' and that criminal investigations into illegal voting are unaffected. SCOTUSblog reports the administration has also asked the Court to let DHS use its immigration database to verify citizenship on state voter rolls, with challengers filing their response Tuesday. Trump's climate and redistricting cases add further flashpoints as the new term begins.