The Supreme Court on Monday halted the U.S. Postal Service from going forward with a rule pushed by the Trump administration to restrict and change the process for mailing ballots in November’s election.
The decision clears the way for states to use mail ballots under their current processes, avoiding last-minute requirements that some election officials said would disenfranchise voters. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were the only justices who dissented.
The high court sided with voting rights groups and nearly half the states, which said it would cause a mad scramble for states to comply and, in some cases, it would be impossible within the timeframe of an election now 50 days away.
“Applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections,” conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion.
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The Trump administration had asked the justices to lift a lower court ruling that blocked key parts of the USPS rule through Election Day on Nov. 3. In the one-paragraph decision Monday, the Supreme Court said the administration is unlikely to successfully challenge that lower court’s ruling.
Alito, in a dissent joined by Thomas, wrote that some of the plaintiffs lacked the legal right to bring the case and the remainder are pursuing a type of claim the court recently called a “Hail Mary pass.”
Alito added that the government would suffer irreparable harm if it was not granted a stay on the injunction, despite the problems of implementing the rule so close to the midterm elections.
“I take that problem very seriously, but it is not enough to convince me to deny the application,” Alito wrote.
The rule stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed in March that sought to redefine the federal government’s role in the mail-in ballot process. The president has said the policies will help safeguard elections from noncitizen voting — though noncitizen registration is illegal and rare, according to experts.
The rule requires states to submit the name, address and a unique barcode number of every eligible voter to a USPS portal, and then check that each outgoing ballot matches an entry on that list.
The USPS said in its final rule that each outgoing ballot envelope must be scanned individually, with a member of election staff present to oversee the entire process.
It also included an approval process for ballot envelopes, which many states have already purchased for their primaries, along with upgrading systems to comply with a new Intelligent Mail barcode, or IMb, for every ballot.
Postal officials previously told The Washington Sun that USPS was rushing its new mailed ballot system without proper testing, which could produce widespread errors and result in disenfranchisement.
Kavanaugh alluded to those concerns in his concurring opinion.
The League of Women Voters, the primary plaintiff in the case, celebrated the decision as a win for voters.
“This was an extraordinary attempt to interfere with voting in all 50 states, and voters should never have been put in this position,” Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, said in a statement after the decision. “Voters should never be caught in the middle of a political power warfare.”
Following the decision, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro assured voters in his state that nothing will change about how counties administer “free, fair, safe, and secure elections.” Pennsylvania joined 24 states and Washington, D.C., to sue the Trump administration over the mail-voting rules.
“This is the final decision,” Shapiro said Monday night on X. “Donald Trump’s illegal attempt to undermine our Constitution and prevent eligible voters from making their voices heard in this election by voting by mail has failed.”
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, rejected the administration’s contention that mail voting is not secure, asserting that it increases voter access and participation in elections.
Fontes said Monday that the decision unburdens election officials, who had been preparing for months to ensure the election goes smoothly, from having to adapt to quick-changing USPS rules.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s campaign to uproot mail-voting norms obscene and unconstitutional.
“Trump,” he said Monday, “you lost another one.”
Officials with the Justice Department and White House did not immediately respond to The Washington Sun’s request for comment.
This story has been updated with further information on the decision and reaction from officials.
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