Supreme Court Upholds Block on Postal Service Mail-Ballot Rules Ahead of Midterms

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to lift a district-court injunction that bars the Postal Service from implementing new regulations governing mail-in ballots. The decision leaves the agency’s recently finalized rules on hold while a broader legal challenge proceeds, meaning the requirements—such as unique barcodes on envelopes and an online portal for voter information—will not be applied before the November midterm elections.

The Trump administration had argued that the rules are needed to curb a "particularly pernicious species of fraud" in mail voting, but the court found the government "unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge" to the preliminary injunction. Two conservative justices dissented, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority, noting that applying the rule now would be "arbitrary and capricious" under the Administrative Procedure Act because election officials lack sufficient time to implement it.

Democratic-led states and voting-rights groups, who sued the administration, contend that the Postal Service lacks authority to set such requirements and that the rules would disenfranchise voters. Attorney General Letitia James praised the ruling, saying it protects the right to vote. The Postal Service maintains that any non-compliant ballots would be returned to election offices.

The court's order follows a series of lower-court decisions that blocked portions of a March executive order directing the Postal Service to develop mail-ballot regulations. A district judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction earlier this month, and a separate judge in Washington, D.C., also halted the rules after a lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee and other groups.