Trump administration seeks Supreme Court emergency stay on new mail-ballot rule
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The White House has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower-court injunction that blocks an executive order requiring postal verification of all voters, arguing the matter is urgent despite the upcoming midterm election.
The Justice Department filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court asking the court to lift a federal judge’s injunction that bars an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile nationwide voter rolls and instructing the Postal Service to reject mail ballots from voters not on those lists. The order, announced about 100 days before the November midterms, would replace existing mail-ballot procedures across the United States.
A federal judge in Massachusetts issued the injunction after 23 states and the District of Columbia challenged the plan, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay the injunction while the case proceeds. The appellate court warned that implementing the order this fall could cause confusion and disenfranchise eligible voters.
The administration’s request invokes the “Purcell principle,” a judicial doctrine that cautions against changing election rules close to an election to avoid voter confusion and administrative chaos. Legal scholars have noted that the principle has traditionally been used to block last-minute relaxations of voting restrictions, and rarely to prevent new restrictions from being imposed.
The solicitor general argued that courts should not intervene because the agencies have not yet finalized implementation details, while the same filing also seeks an immediate emergency stay, citing insufficient time before the election for normal appellate review. The Supreme Court’s decision will determine whether the Purcell principle applies when the executive branch itself seeks to enact sweeping voting changes shortly before an election.