Trump asks Supreme Court to allow mail voting limits

The Trump administration has again asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let it enforce new restrictions on mail-in voting, escalating a legal fight just as states begin sending ballots for November’s midterm elections.

The emergency filing on Sunday came two days after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani extended an order blocking the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing President Donald Trump’s March executive order. The order would restrict delivery of mail ballots and require states to provide the Postal Service with voter names and barcode information tied to federal-election ballots.

The administration says the rules are limited, practical steps to secure voting by mail. Democratic-led states and voting rights groups argue the changes are unconstitutional, while state election officials say there is not enough time to overhaul election systems before voting begins in earnest.

“Ballots have already begun to be mailed in North Carolina, and more states will begin the mailing process as the injunction remains in place – including Alabama on September 9 and at least five states the week of September 13,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the filing.

“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” Sauer continued. He said each day the injunction remains in place risks “sowing confusion and chaos” because preparatory steps by the Postal Service and states remain voluntary rather than mandatory.

Talwani’s Friday order said Trump’s directives, which would give the federal government a role in handling mail ballots, are likely unconstitutional. Al Jazeera reported that the judge also criticized the timing, writing that with about two months until Election Day, the policy “threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail.”

In its Supreme Court filing, the administration rejected that view. “Contrary to the claims of the district court and respondents that the Postal Service is trying to federalise the rules for mail-in voting, the Postal Service’s final rule imposes only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements for federal-election ballots sent via U.S. Mail,” it wrote.

Sauer said the policy would not take over states’ authority to run elections. He described it as a set of “reasonable preparation requirements” and wrote that states would remain responsible for deciding voter eligibility, eligibility to vote by mail, ballot content, mailing and receipt deadlines, and ballot-counting procedures.

The Guardian reported that Trump’s executive order would bar the Postal Service from delivering ballots to voters who are not on a federal list of citizens deemed eligible to vote in each state by the Department of Homeland Security, limiting ballot delivery to approved lists.

The Postal Service has said it is ready to implement the restrictions if court injunctions are lifted. The administration has called the measures “commonsense” steps aimed at protecting voting security and has described the order blocking them as “unreasoned and unlawful.”

Sunday’s filing is the third time the administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the dispute. The court has previously allowed the plan to move forward but has not decided whether it is legal. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson set a Wednesday deadline for responses to the administration’s request, Al Jazeera reported.

The case could affect a large share of voters in elections that will determine control of Congress. Nearly one-third of U.S. voters cast ballots by mail, according to The Guardian. Al Jazeera cited a States United Democracy Center analysis finding that one in four registered Democrats and one in five registered Republicans voted by mail in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump has repeatedly sought to limit voting by mail, even though he has used the method himself. He has falsely blamed mail balloting for his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and promoted baseless claims of fraud.