Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 16, 2026· Updated

Three Weeks After Letting It Take Effect, the Supreme Court Reverses Course and Blocks Trump's Mail-In Ballot Rule 7-2 — Trump Calls the Two Dissenters "Legends Both" and Says His Own Appointees Are "a Shell of Their Original Selves," While Schumer Says His "Scheme Is Dead"

The Supreme Court on September 14 blocked the Postal Service mail-ballot rule at the center of Trump's March executive order — new envelope, tracking-barcode and voter-list requirements that critics said would disenfranchise voters with too little time before the midterms to implement. The order was 7-2, with only Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting; none of Trump's three appointees, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the administration. Kavanaugh's concurrence found the rule likely had statutory backing in principle but was "arbitrary and capricious" to apply this close to the election. The ruling reverses the posture of an August 24 Supreme Court stay that had let the rule move forward, and is a sharp defeat for a policy the administration had defended as an anti-fraud measure. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the rule's "regulation of the U.S. mail — not federal elections — is plainly constitutional," while Trump attacked his own appointees on Truth Social as "merely a shell of their original selves" and praised the two dissenters as "legends both." Democrats, who had spent weeks warning the rule would suppress mail voting, celebrated the reversal. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the president's "scheme is dead," and Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper called the decision a rejection of Trump's latest "attempt to infringe on Americans' right to vote."

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves. The Court's inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 16, 2026

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"

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.

“We'll use every tool in our toolbox to ensure they know the truth about our elections. We'll follow the law. We'll protect the right to vote.”
Jocelyn Benson (D-MI) · Sep 6, 2026

Supreme Court Upholds Mississippi Law Counting Mail Ballots Postmarked by Election Day

On June 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Watson v. Republican National Committee that states may count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day even if they arrive afterward, rejecting a Republican challenge to Mississippi's law allowing receipt up to five business days after the election. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's three Democratic appointees, holding that federal "election-day" statutes set a deadline for casting ballots but do not bar states from counting ballots received later. Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh dissented. The RNC, the Mississippi Republican Party, and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi had challenged the grace period, which is one of roughly 18 similar state laws. The decision was a defeat for President Trump and Republicans, who had pushed to require ballots be received by Election Day.

“In light of the tremendous loss in the Supreme Court today concerning Voter's Rights, and the fact that "people's" votes are allowed to be counted LONG AFTER an Election is over, it is more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Jun 29, 2026