Trump administration asks Supreme Court to clear the way for new mail-in voting restrictions
The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to enable it to absolutely implement an government order signed by President Donald Trump that seeks to impose extra restrictions on mail-in voting. US Solicitor General D. John Sauer known as an order by a federal decide in Massachusetts that paused parts of the order in 23 states and the District of Columbia “extraordinary,” and he argued that it “flouts settled” doctrines governing when courts can weigh in on a dispute.
Sauer additionally requested the court docket to difficulty a direct administrative keep – an order that quickly places the decrease court docket’s order on maintain whereas the justices take into account the authorities’s request.
Trump signed the executive order at the heart of the case, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” on March 31 of this 12 months. Among different issues, the order instructs the US Postal Service to suggest guidelines for mail-in and absentee ballots, and it directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile “state citizenship lists” – lists of people in every state who’re US residents over the age of 18. Under the order, the guidelines issued by the USPS should present that the Postal Service can solely ship mail-in ballots to voters whose names seem on the state citizenship lists.
A gaggle of 23 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, went to federal court docket in Massachusetts to problem the implementation of the order. They argued that the order conflicts with provisions in the Constitution that give states the energy to decide voter eligibility and to set the “Times, Places, and Manner” of holding congressional elections.
US District Judge Indira Talwani agreed and on June 25 issued an order that prohibited the federal authorities from implementing the mail-in poll and state citizenship checklist provisions for the Nov. 3, 2026, elections in the states that had filed the lawsuit.
In an order issued on Saturday, a divided panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit turned down the authorities’s request to intervene. If the order had been “to take effect for the elections taking place” in the fall, the majority wrote, “it would sow confusion and threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters.”
The Trump administration then came to the Supreme Court on Monday, asking the justices to step in. Sauer argued that the courts shouldn’t but take into account the states’ lawsuit as a result of the companies haven’t but determined how they are going to implement the order. But even when it had been acceptable for courts to take into account their request, Sauer continued, Talwani’s ruling must be placed on maintain to keep away from “serious irreparable harm.” “Even if the agencies’ implementation plans end up being entirely legal,” Sauer wrote, “there is not enough time to obtain ordinary appellate relief from the injunction in order to carry them out before the November election, especially given that any such plans will need to be implemented well before November given the timing of election procedures concerning voter-roll verification and mail voting.”
The court docket instructed the states to file a response to the authorities’s request by 4 pm EDT on Monday, Aug. 3.
Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, Trump administration asks Supreme Court to clear the way for new mail-in voting restrictionsSCOTUSblog (Jul. 27, 2026, 5:48 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/07/trump-administration-asks-supreme-court-to-clear-the-way-for-new-mail-in-voting-restrictions/
