US Supreme Court leaves Trump postal voting restrictions blocked
The ruling allows states to continue sending and processing mail ballots under existing rules for the November midterm elections.
The US Supreme Court has refused to lift an injunction blocking Donald Trump’s plan to impose new federal restrictions on postal voting ahead of the November midterm elections.
The decision leaves states free to send and process mail ballots under their existing procedures, as voting begins in Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Al Jazeera Global News reported that the court indicated the administration was likely to fail in its effort to implement the restrictions before the midterms.
Trump’s March 2026 executive order sought federal control over parts of mail voting. It proposed standardised envelopes and voter lists, while giving the US Postal Service authority to reject ballots that failed to meet new requirements or were not linked to registered voters on state lists.
US District Judge Indira Talwani blocked the policy in June, finding that it was likely unconstitutional and impractical to introduce so close to the election. The Supreme Court temporarily allowed the administration’s position to proceed on procedural grounds in late August, without ruling on the policy’s constitutionality.
The latest order was brief and offered limited reasoning. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority, while Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. Kavanaugh indicated he might support the policy at a later stage, leaving broader legal questions unresolved.
Mail voting has been used in the United States for decades and accounts for about one-third of votes cast. Eight states and Washington, DC, conduct elections entirely by mail.
