The Supreme Court lifted a lower court block on President Trump's mail-in voting executive order, allowing the administration to enforce the election integrity rules in 23 states ahead of the November midterms.
The Supreme Court on Monday handed President Donald Trump a major victory, clearing the way for his administration to enforce an executive order restricting mail-in voting just weeks before states begin sending out ballots for the November midterms.
The 6-3 ruling lifted a lower court injunction that had blocked key provisions of the order in California and 22 other states. The court's conservative majority sided with the administration, with all three liberal justices dissenting.
At the center of the fight is an executive order aimed at tightening who can receive a mail-in ballot. The order directs the creation of a federal list of eligible voters and instructs the U.S. Postal Service to deliver ballots only to people on that list.
A Massachusetts-based federal judge blocked those provisions in June, ruling that states that challenged the order should not be forced to comply while the legal questions were unresolved. The administration appealed, and the Supreme Court on Monday lifted the injunction, allowing the order to move forward in the 23 states that had sued.
The court also granted a similar application filed by Alabama and 11 other states. Parts of the order remain blocked nationwide by a separate ruling in another case, though Monday's decision is likely to apply there as well, allowing the administration to begin implementation in the short term.
The U.S. Postal Service and the Justice Department said they would immediately implement the revised mail-ballot rules after the ruling. The Postal Service issued its final regulation enforcing parts of the order on Aug. 21, while the case was still pending.
The administration has stressed the rules are narrower than critics suggest. The Postal Service will not refuse to transmit ballots even if a sender is not included on a state list of registered voters, the government told the court.
The ruling does not settle the underlying legal fight. The court said its decision does not mean any measure taken to implement the order will necessarily be lawful, leaving room for judges to step in again as the election approaches.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Sotomayor wrote that the decision merely postpones challenges to the order and does not address whether the president has authority to direct how states administer federal elections. Jackson accused the majority of focusing on a technical argument while the administration pursues a larger goal.
Democrats who challenged the order vowed to keep fighting. New York Attorney General Letitia James called the ruling a painful setback but said it will not be the final word. The decision also aligns with a separate ruling by the D.C. Circuit that rejected an earlier Democratic attempt to block the order.
The timing matters. Some states begin mailing ballots in just a few weeks, and the midterms are roughly two months away. Trump has long pushed for stricter voting rules, including proof-of-citizenship requirements and voter ID, arguing they protect election integrity. The Supreme Court has now given his administration room to implement those goals, even as the legal battle continues.
The Supreme Court lifted a lower court block on President Trump's mail-in voting executive order, allowing the administration to enforce the election integrity rules in 23 states ahead of the November midterms.
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