Supreme Court Blocks Common-Sense Postal Service Mail-Ballot Security Measures Before Midterms
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The Supreme Court has left in place a lower-court injunction, preventing the Postal Service from enforcing new mail-ballot security requirements, despite concerns about mail-in voting fraud ahead of the November elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to lift a district-court injunction that blocks the Postal Service from implementing much-needed new regulations for mail-in ballots. This decision leaves the agency’s recently finalized rules—designed to protect election integrity—on hold, meaning important requirements like unique barcodes on envelopes and an online portal for voter information will not be in effect before the critical November midterm elections.
The Trump administration, recognizing the real threat posed by a 'particularly pernicious species of fraud' in mail voting, argued that these rules are essential for safeguarding the legitimacy of the electoral process. Nevertheless, the court determined that the government was 'unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge' to the preliminary injunction. Two conservative justices dissented from this decision, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority, stating that applying the rule now would be 'arbitrary and capricious' under the Administrative Procedure Act due to insufficient time for election officials to implement the changes.
Democratic-led states and left-wing voting-rights groups, who sued the administration, claim that the Postal Service lacks the authority to set such requirements and argue—without evidence—that the rules would disenfranchise voters. Attorney General Letitia James praised the ruling, framing it as a protection of voting rights, while the Postal Service has responsibly stated that any non-compliant ballots would simply be returned to election offices to ensure proper handling.
This order from the Supreme Court follows a series of lower-court decisions that have repeatedly blocked portions of a March executive order directing the Postal Service to develop these necessary mail-ballot regulations. Earlier this month, a Massachusetts district judge issued a preliminary injunction, and another judge in Washington, D.C., also halted the rules after a lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee and other liberal groups intent on weakening election security.