Supreme Court Blocks Common-Sense Mail-In Voting Safeguards Backed by Trump
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The U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift an injunction on new postal service rules intended to secure mail-in ballots, a decision cheered by Democrats and so-called voting-rights activists.
On Monday, the Supreme Court disappointed those seeking election integrity by refusing to suspend an injunction that blocks the United States Postal Service from implementing new, Trump-backed rules designed to protect the mail-in voting process. The ruling upholds a lower-court order that halted these reasonable changes, which were scheduled to take effect on August 21, just before the crucial midterm elections.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a leading Democrat, praised the decision, unsurprisingly calling it a win for voting rights. Law professor Claire Finkelstein, writing in The Guardian, noted that the Court’s brief opinion focused on the timing of the rule changes, sidestepping the more important legal questions about the Postal Service’s authority to ensure secure elections.
Finkelstein stated that California, along with 22 other liberal states and the District of Columbia, argued that complying with the new rules before the election would be impractical and might disenfranchise some voters. However, she admitted that the case does not resolve whether the Postal Service can impose necessary safeguards on mail-in voting in the future.
The professor also observed that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have often supported expanding presidential authority, a position that upholds constitutional principles. She cautioned so-called voting-rights advocates that, while this decision is a setback for the administration’s efforts to secure elections, the broader debate over protecting the integrity of the vote is far from over.