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The Supreme Court Lets Trump's Mail-Voting Order Move Forward 71 Days Before the Midterms — "A Giant Leap Forward" or "A Dagger Into the Heart of Our Democracy"
August 24, 2026
On Monday, August 24, 2026, the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration an interim victory on its effort to restrict who receives a mail-in ballot before the November midterms. In an unsigned emergency-docket order that divided the justices along ideological lines, the Court lifted the injunction U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani entered in June, which had blocked key provisions of President Trump's March 2026 executive order from taking effect in the 23 states and the District of Columbia that sued — a group that includes Arizona, California, Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The executive order directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of confirmed adult U.S. citizens in each state, requires states that use mail balloting to hand the federal government lists of every registered voter receiving a mail or absentee ballot in a federal election, and instructs the U.S. Postal Service to decline to deliver mail ballots from states that do not comply. The Postal Service issued its final rules on August 22, adding new ballot design standards and serialized barcodes on outgoing and return envelopes. The majority wrote that its "disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the government to implement the order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell." Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning the decision creates a "Kafkaesque nightmare" that "needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections." Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, wrote that the order "merely postpones adjudication" of whether the president may direct the administration of a state-run election at all. The ruling does not end the litigation. A second injunction Talwani issued on August 11 in a suit brought by the League of Women Voters and Democratic Party committees blocks the order nationwide and remains in force, and the states have said they will challenge the Postal Service's new rules. Democratic senators, governors and attorneys general cast the decision as sanctioning voter suppression weeks before ballots go out; Republicans who have long pushed to curb mail voting called it a win for election security and renewed their push for the SAVE America Act.
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45 Statements
“They're trying to steal the election. Every day — they don't have any plans to get healthcare to American people or to combat climate change. They've got plans to try to steal the election.
“[Although] the States have primary authority to regulate the manner of elections, they cannot choose to use the federal mails to carry out their elections but then insist that their election-related mail is somehow exempt.
“The Trump administration has admitted to the Courts that they are still not ready to implement their own rule.
“The President’s objective is to cause chaos in the hope that voters will give up and simply not participate. I’m grateful to the court for blocking yet another attempt to upend our elections.
“We are glad that this Court has stopped the Postal Service from impacting who can receive a ballot in the 2026 election.
“This ruling will keep the USPS’ unprecedented and drastic changes from going into effect while our case moves forward.
“If the Postal Service does not immediately reverse its current course, it will inflict lasting harm to our democracy and permanently damage a storied American institution.
“Notwithstanding the major legal deficiencies with the final rule, the Postal Service's continued insistence that it can successfully build, test, train, and deploy an entirely new system for processing millions of absentee ballots – just weeks prior to the November general election – risks disrupting the smooth administration of the midterms and disenfranchising voters.
“Despite repeated warnings from Congress and court orders not to implement the President's unlawful directives to regulate mail-in voting, the Postal Service continues to carry out these actions, which will undermine peoples' faith in the upcoming elections.
“They tried to restrict voting rights via the USPS system, we sued, and we won an order blocking the USPS rule through the November elections!
“Trump is asking the Supreme Court to take a huge leap to destroy the precious integrity of the American electoral process. The Court should not accelerate a case that so poisons our democracy. American voters will pick their leaders — not Donald Trump.
“The Postal Service's final rule imposes only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements for federal-election ballots sent via U.S. Mail.
“The district court's order partially nullifies the Postal Service's efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud.
“The whistleblower’s allegations also provide disturbing information suggesting that USPS may have violated a court order by continuing to implement the EO despite being ordered to cease all such work.
“This is not just incompetence, it is designed malfunction.
“The main takeaway for me is that the Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans.
“Taken together they present a clear picture of a fatally flawed process that cannot and will not protect American voters. Put plainly: this process will likely lead to chaos, confusion, and the inability of many Americans to have their vote counted.
“We just won a court order blocking the Trump administration’s new rule that would have allowed the USPS to interfere with mail-in voting. States are responsible for processing our elections, and the USPS does not have the authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail.
“Today, the district court blocked the rule, making it clear that President Trump must keep his hands off our elections. The right to vote is a foundational principle of our democracy, and we’re making sure it remains protected for everyone.
“This USPS rule is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to exert federal control over elections.
“We're suing to block USPS's rule restricting mail-in voting. This rule is an unlawful overreach that shows just how far President Trump will go to control elections — and we won't stand for it.
“I'm suing to block the Trump administration's new rule that allows the USPS to intercept and reject lawful ballots, threatening millions of Americans' right to vote. This will create confusion and unacceptable risks for voters.
“The Constitution is clear: states control elections — not the president.
“Mail-in voting is safe and secure and makes it more accessible for Vermonters, especially across our rural state, to participate in our democracy.
“Today, we are taking strong, joint legal action to stop Trump's unlawful attempt to restrict mail-in voting through the Postal Service. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling did not say that Trump's executive order attacking voting rights is constitutional. But the law is clear: States have the authority to run elections — not the president. We will not stand by while Trump and Republicans try to unnecessarily inject chaos and confusion into our elections, just weeks before voting begins.
“Today, we are taking strong, joint legal action to stop Trump's unlawful attempt to restrict mail-in voting through the Postal Service. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling did not say that Trump's executive order attacking voting rights is constitutional. But the law is clear: States have the authority to run elections — not the president. We will not stand by while Trump and Republicans try to unnecessarily inject chaos and confusion into our elections, just weeks before voting begins.
“Today, we are taking strong, joint legal action to stop Trump's unlawful attempt to restrict mail-in voting through the Postal Service. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling did not say that Trump's executive order attacking voting rights is constitutional. But the law is clear: States have the authority to run elections — not the president. We will not stand by while Trump and Republicans try to unnecessarily inject chaos and confusion into our elections, just weeks before voting begins.
“Today, we are taking strong, joint legal action to stop Trump's unlawful attempt to restrict mail-in voting through the Postal Service. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling did not say that Trump's executive order attacking voting rights is constitutional. But the law is clear: States have the authority to run elections — not the president. We will not stand by while Trump and Republicans try to unnecessarily inject chaos and confusion into our elections, just weeks before voting begins.
“Today, we are taking strong, joint legal action to stop Trump's unlawful attempt to restrict mail-in voting through the Postal Service. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling did not say that Trump's executive order attacking voting rights is constitutional. But the law is clear: States have the authority to run elections — not the president. We will not stand by while Trump and Republicans try to unnecessarily inject chaos and confusion into our elections, just weeks before voting begins.
“Today, we are taking strong, joint legal action to stop Trump's unlawful attempt to restrict mail-in voting through the Postal Service. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling did not say that Trump's executive order attacking voting rights is constitutional. But the law is clear: States have the authority to run elections — not the president. We will not stand by while Trump and Republicans try to unnecessarily inject chaos and confusion into our elections, just weeks before voting begins.
“This decision is a painful setback. But it will not be the final word.
“With today's SCOTUS ruling, President Trump has made a giant leap forward in securing our 2026 elections.
“Today's Supreme Court decision gets the Trump Administration one step closer to implementing its voter suppression order.
“Congress must still pass the SAVE America Act to secure future elections. We should've passed it months ago.
“Trump voted by mail eleven days ago. Apparently it's good enough for him, but he wants to take away your right to vote in the same way.
“Trump is desperately trying to rig the rules for the 2026 election. He is rushing through an unconstitutional order to limit mail voting before the midterms and the Supreme Court isn't stopping him.
“It's a disgrace that the highest court in the nation is allowing Trump to put a dagger into the heart of our democracy.
“Bravo! Glad to see the Supreme Court get this one right. Election integrity is nonnegotiable.
“The right to vote is the foundation of our Democracy, and the Supreme Court's decision allowing the President to move forward with this assault on that right is an insult to the vision of our founders.
“Another day, another Trump attempt to rig elections and destroy democracy. We can stop this. VOTE this November.
“This is a terrible decision from Trump's Supreme Court. States run elections, not Donald Trump.
“Trump does not get to rewrite election law or suppress the right to vote with the stroke of a pen.
“SCOTUS decision does NOT deal with the substance of Trump's unconstitutional Executive Order and does not mean his illegal attempt to restrict mail-in voting will go forward.
“Mail-in ballots are very important to the people of Maine. I do not support restrictions that make it more difficult for seniors to cast votes on Election Day via the mail.