Supreme Court Allows Parts of Trump Mail-In Voting Order to Proceed, States Plan Legal Challenges
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected most state challenges to President Trump’s mail-in ballot restrictions, permitting federal agencies to move forward while several states said they will continue to fight in court.
The Supreme Court issued a ruling that largely favors the White House in its effort to tighten mail-in voting procedures, allowing federal agencies to begin implementing components of President Donald Trump’s executive order. Former White House deputy counsel Gene Hamilton said the decision lets the Postal Service, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice proceed with new ballot-mail standards and voter-citizenship verification efforts, though the court left open the possibility of future lawsuits if states can show concrete injury.
"It’s really interesting what the court did and it’s actually exactly what you would expect the court to do," Hamilton told Fox News Digital.
The court rejected an earlier district-court injunction that had blocked the order, reasoning that the states had not demonstrated an immediate harm. Hamilton warned that the legal landscape could shift quickly as agencies develop concrete rules, and that states must prove a sufficiently imminent injury rather than rely on speculative future effects.
The Department of Homeland Security is directed to compile lists of adult U.S. citizens for states, while the Justice Department is to prioritize investigations of ballots cast by ineligible voters. The Postal Service has finalized a rule requiring standardized ballot envelopes and tracking barcodes, and it may refuse to deliver federal ballots to states that do not cooperate, though implementation has been delayed pending litigation.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the administration will continue to enact measures it describes as “commonsense” to protect election security. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, criticized the decision, saying it could make voting harder. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes also vowed to fight the rule in court.
"Over my dead body is that rule going to go into effect. We are going to fight this tooth and nail in the courts," Mayes said.
Hamilton predicted further litigation as agencies move forward, and Shapiro echoed the plaintiffs’ intent to continue legal challenges.