Supreme Court blocks Trump mail-in voting rules ahead of midterms

The U.S. Supreme Court denied President Donald Trump’s bid to enact stricter mail-in voting rules, leaving existing procedures in place nationwide through this fall’s midterm elections.

Monday’s 7-2 order left intact a lower court decision that prevented the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing the measure.

Legal experts say the decision means that all 50 states can continue using their existing mail-voting procedures through at least the Nov. 3 midterms, when voters will decide who controls Congress in Trump’s final two years in office.

While the new restrictions would not have applied to Americans voting from abroad, including U.S. service members, several voting rights and civic groups have argued that they created uncertainty for overseas voters who depend on the mail to cast their ballots.

“We are grateful that voters have certainty about the rules for this election cycle, especially for those of us who already face significant hurdles to participating in elections,” said Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of U.S. Vote Foundation.

The organization provides voting assistance to Americans, including service members and their families, living abroad.

“For some military members, ballots have already been sent,” she said.

The high court’s brief, unsigned order left in place an injunction by a federal judge in Boston that temporarily blocked the Postal Service from implementing the new rules, which were issued in response to Trump’s March 31 executive order.

Trump said the order was needed to prevent election fraud and noncitizen voting. In response, the postal service said it would not deliver mail ballots in states that do not share voter data with the federal agency, among other changes.

With the injunction in place, the Postal Service cannot refuse to deliver ballots that fail to meet the new requirements for the November election, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.

The ACLU was among a group of civil rights and legal organizations representing a coalition of nonpartisan voter service and civic organizations that filed a lawsuit last month seeking to block the move. 

“Applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his concurrence with the majority.

Officials “do not have sufficient time” to implement the changes for this election cycle, he added.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The “practical effects of implementing the rule close to midterm elections” were not enough to warrant blocking it, Alito wrote.

Benjamin Wolfmeier, a member of Republicans Overseas Germany, said the ruling was expected, given that some states have already begun to send out ballots by mail.

But the group, which lists one of its goals as strengthening the voice of conservative Americans abroad, would like to see voter reform in place by the 2028 general election, he said Tuesday.

Democrats Abroad Chair Martha McDevitt-Pugh said the case had caused Americans living and serving abroad to question whether they could continue relying on the mail system to vote.

“Now that doubt is gone,” she said, urging overseas voters to request their ballots and return them as early as possible.