Trump Administration Makes Third Supreme Court Bid on Mail Ballots

The Trump administration made a third Supreme Court bid to revive mail ballot restrictions after a judge blocked the USPS rule.

On Sunday morning, the Trump administration filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to pause U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's preliminary injunction, issued Friday, that bars the government from implementing key parts of a new U.S. Postal Service rule on mail ballots. It is the third time in less than six weeks — and the second time since Thursday — that the administration has come to the justices on this dispute, according to SCOTUSblog. Solicitor General John Sauer told the court that Talwani's order 'nullif[ies] the Postal Service's efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud.' The administration withdrew its earlier Sept. 3 application in light of the new order.

The filing came just two days after Talwani's Friday order, which replaced her Aug. 27 temporary restraining order and blocked the rule indefinitely while litigation continues. Timing is the administration's central argument: mail ballots are already going out. In the emergency filing, Sauer wrote that ballots have begun to be mailed in North Carolina, Alabama starts September 9, and at least five states begin the week of September 13. 'Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,' he wrote, arguing each day the injunction stands 'risks sowing confusion and chaos.' The administration asked Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to immediately pause the injunction while the court considers the request.

The dispute stems from a March executive order signed by President Donald Trump that directed federal agencies to take steps on mail-in voting. The third provision requires states to give the Postal Service a list of voters to whom they intend to send mail ballots and prohibits USPS from mailing ballots to voters not on those lists, SCOTUSblog reports. The administration describes the resulting USPS rule as 'only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements' that do not dictate ballot content, deadlines, or counting procedures, and says states remain responsible for voter eligibility. Opponents, including 23 states led by California, the District of Columbia, and voting rights groups, argue it is unconstitutional and would disenfranchise voters.

Talwani's Friday order cited the rushed implementation, writing that the rule's immediate implementation less than seventy days before the November 2026 election 'threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail,' per NBC News. According to the Brennan Center, the court found enforcing the rule would make voter disenfranchisement 'practically inevitable,' noted no evidence of mail ballot fraud on the record, and heard dozens of state and local officials explain compliance would be impossible for November. The ACLU's Sophia Lin Lakin said there is 'not a shred of evidence that states could comply with it without disenfranchising voters who rely on mail ballots.'

The high court has not ruled on whether the executive order or the rule is legal. In August, an unsigned 10-page opinion allowed the administration to begin implementing the order, reasoning that it was too soon for courts to consider the states' challenge because the order had not yet been carried out and the states had not suffered the injury needed for their lawsuit to proceed, SCOTUSblog reports. GPB reports a whistleblower alleges USPS has not properly tested the online portal that would collect mail-in voters' information. Nearly one-third of US voters cast mail ballots, and control of Congress is at stake in November.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who holds responsibility for emergency appeals from Massachusetts, has directed challengers to file their response by 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 9, so a Supreme Court ruling is not expected until after that deadline. The administration has separately asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the injunction, with a decision not expected until after 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, per GPB. Voting by mail remains available to all eligible voters under current orders, and USPS is expected to deliver ballots as usual for now.