President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a federal judge barred new mail-in ballot policies ahead of the midterms.
This appeal marks the third time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to uphold the president’s efforts to overhaul regulations aimed at restricting voting by mail.
“Ballots have already begun to be mailed in North Carolina, and more States will begin the mailing process as the injunction remains in place,” Solicitor General John Sauer said in the filing.
“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” Sauer continued. “And while the injunction allows the Postal Service and the States to continue taking steps to ensure that their envelopes satisfy the Rule’s requirements, ... each day the injunction is in place risks sowing confusion and chaos because the injunction makes those preparatory steps voluntary, rather than mandatory.”
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U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee in Massachusetts, on Friday extended a block on the new regulations until after Election Day, Nov. 3, saying millions of U.S. voters could be disenfranchised by the restrictions on voting by mail.
The Trump administration argued that Talwani’s ruling cast an “improper cloud of uncertainty” over the USPS rule. The Supreme Court previously threw out a challenge to the new regulations on procedural grounds last month.
The latest appeal to the high court involves legal challenges from voting rights groups as well as 23 states and the District of Columbia.
The Trump administration argues that some of the changes, like new federal design and barcodes for ballot envelopes, “build on practices the Postal Service has long recommended.”
With less than 60 days until Election Day, some states, which have the congressional authority to administer elections, argue that the Trump administration is trying to exert improper control in the process.
But the filing asserts that states still have control over the administration of elections while the U.S. Postal Service has the “longstanding authority” to adopt the rules and regulations — which include comparing mail-in ballots with a list of eligible voters determined by a list submitted by each state.
“While 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 from the Postal Service’s rulemaking authority, conferred by Congress, to regulate envelope design and addressee information,” Sauer wrote Sunday.
The high court’s decision would have profound impacts on the upcoming election if the Trump administration prevails. Nearly one-third of all Americans voted by mail in 2024, generating more than 48 million votes, according to the States United Democracy Center.
Even Trump frequently votes by mail and did so ahead of Florida’s primary elections in August. But the president has cast doubt over the voting procedure by claiming without evidence it creates widespread fraud in the elections system.
“END MAIL-IN VOTING, AND GO TO PAPER BALLOTS. 100 additional seats will go to Republicans!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in Aug. 2025.
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