WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s request to revive new mail-in voting restrictions ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, keeping in place a lower court order that blocks the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing the requirements.
The Monday ruling means the Postal Service is expected to continue delivering mail ballots under existing procedures during the midterms.
The blocked plan would require states to provide voter name and address lists to the Postal Service and use specific barcodes on ballot envelopes before the agency could deliver the ballots.
Court keeps restrictions on hold
A federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction earlier this month that blocked the Postal Service from enforcing the new requirements. The judge found that the challengers were likely to show that the Postal Service lacked authority to impose the rules on state-run mail voting.
A second federal judge issued another preliminary injunction late Sunday.
The Supreme Court majority said the Trump administration was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge and kept the injunction in place.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the order and wrote separately that the final rule could fall within the Postal Service’s statutory authority. He also said applying the rule during the 2026 elections could violate the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials lacked enough time to implement the requirements.
Republican election officials from several states, including Utah, also urged the Supreme Court not to allow the changes to take effect before the midterms. In a court brief, they warned that implementing the plan could cause mistakes, delays and confusion for voters and election officials.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented and said they would have granted the administration’s request to pause the Boston judge’s ruling.
Legal fight could continue
The Supreme Court’s decision keeps the USPS plan blocked for the 2026 midterms, but the legal dispute could continue over whether the agency can implement similar requirements in future federal elections.
The League of Women Voters, which challenged the proposal, welcomed the ruling.
“Today, the Supreme Court refused to allow the federal government to throw our elections into chaos just weeks before Election Day,” League CEO Celina Stewart said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James also welcomed the decision. Her state joined 23 other states and Washington, D.C., in challenging the proposal.
“Voters should never have to wonder whether a ballot they legally cast will be counted because the federal government suddenly changed the rules,” James said.
Trump criticizes ruling
Trump criticized the Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday and called it “a big loss for Republicans.”
Trump nominated Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court during his first term. He praised Alito and Thomas for opposing the majority’s decision.
Trump also renewed his criticism of mail-in voting and called it a “totally CORRUPT and out of control Mail-In voting ‘disaster.’”
Trump has said the USPS changes would help prevent noncitizens from voting illegally. Studies and election audits have found that noncitizen voting remains extremely uncommon, and the administration has not presented evidence of mail-voting fraud in the court proceedings over the USPS plan.
Trump has repeatedly criticized mail-in voting, which accounted for about one-third of votes in the two most recent federal elections.
A 2024 national survey from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab found that 37% of Democratic voters reported voting by mail, compared with 24% of Republican voters.
Trump himself voted by mail in Florida this year.
