Supreme Court lifts block on Trump mail voting order

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared one legal barrier to President Donald Trump’s plan to tighten control over mail-in voting, lifting a lower-court injunction against an executive order that would create citizenship lists for determining who may receive a ballot. A separate nationwide injunction remains in place, leaving the order blocked for now.

The justices divided 6-3 along ideological lines. The court’s unsigned majority said the Democratic-led states challenging the order had not shown they had standing to sue and that their claims were premature because any harm depended on future actions by the homeland security secretary and other officials.

“Article III prohibits federal courts from stacking hypothetical on hypothetical to speculate that harm will eventually materialize,” the majority wrote. The court also said the states lacked a “well-founded fear” that they would be prosecuted for not using the lists.

The majority stressed that its decision did not validate every possible step the administration might take. “The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful,” the justices wrote. “On that score, time will tell.”

Trump issued the order in March. It directs the federal government to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters and requires mail-in ballots to be delivered only to people on that list. It also directs the Justice Department to prioritize investigations and prosecutions of state and local election officials who issue ballots to people deemed ineligible to vote in federal elections.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued, arguing that the Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — authority over federal election rules. They said the order could disenfranchise voters and disrupt election preparations already underway. The midterm elections are less than 100 days away and will determine control of the Senate and House.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts blocked the order in June, ruling that Trump lacked authority to dictate how states administer federal elections and questioning whether federal agencies could compile accurate citizenship lists. An appeals court upheld that decision. Talwani later issued a second injunction with nationwide effect, which remains in force.

The Justice Department argued that the states sued too soon because the administration had not yet taken concrete actions harming them. It said the injunction prevented officials from finalizing and implementing policies meant to promote “election integrity” before November. Republican-led states supported the administration, saying states would be able to provide input on final voter lists.

The three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, said the government’s position was contradictory: it portrayed the order as tentative and nonbinding while also claiming it would suffer irreparable harm if it could not enforce it.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote separately that the ruling “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.” She said the majority had not explained “when, exactly, is the right time to bring a meritorious election-rule claim challenging unconstitutional interference with electoral processes.” Jackson also accused the majority of enabling “a patently inequitable Catch-Me-If-You-Can approach to pursuing the President’s policy agenda” and said the government could not be irreparably harmed by being blocked from unconstitutional interference in state-run elections.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the decision a “painful setback” and said her office was reviewing legal options. “It won’t be the final word,” she said.

Voting rights groups also criticized the ruling. Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, said, “Let this ruling be a reminder that democracy is never, ever, guaranteed. We have to fight for it, we have to fight to keep it, and we have to protect the rights we do have within it.”

According to The Guardian, about 30% of ballots were cast by mail in the 2024 presidential election, and a 2025 Brookings Institution study found roughly four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail ballots cast. The Guardian also reported that about one in four registered Democrats and one in five registered Republicans voted by mail in 2024, citing the States United Democracy Center.