WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to introduce new restrictions on voting by mail ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, delivering a significant legal setback to the White House.
The justices on Monday upheld a lower federal court order temporarily blocking the United States Postal Service (USPS) from implementing new requirements affecting the delivery and processing of election-related mail.
The decision means that the proposed changes will not take effect ahead of the upcoming midterm elections while legal challenges against the Trump administration’s policy continue.
The ruling was welcomed by voting-rights organizations, with the Campaign Legal Center saying the decision would prevent the Postal Service from “sowing chaos in our elections.”
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However, the Supreme Court’s decision may not represent the final outcome of the dispute.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the majority in allowing the lower court’s order to remain in place, but indicated that he could ultimately support Trump’s position as the broader legal challenge proceeds.
Kavanaugh wrote that there was “at least a fair prospect” that the final rule could fall within the Postal Service’s statutory authority. However, he concluded that applying the new requirements during the 2026 elections could be “arbitrary and capricious.”
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Two other conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, dissented.
The two justices argued that the legal challenge against Trump’s order was unlikely to succeed, describing it as a “Hail Mary pass,” while stressing that the Postal Service has broad authority to regulate the mail.
Trump’s Push to Restrict Mail Voting
Trump has repeatedly criticized voting by mail and has argued that tighter controls are necessary to prevent election fraud.
In March, he signed an executive order directing the USPS to introduce new requirements for election-related mail, including the use of unique barcodes on postal ballot envelopes.
The order also directed state and local election officials to provide information about voters receiving mail ballots through an online system.
Trump’s administration argued that the federal government has the authority to regulate election-related mail because the ballots are transported through the federal postal system.
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The administration maintained that states could not rely on the federal mail service to conduct elections while simultaneously claiming that election-related mail should be exempt from USPS regulations.
States Challenge the Order
The Trump administration’s policy immediately faced legal challenges from Democratic-led states.
Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., sued to block the executive order, arguing that it interfered with states’ constitutional authority to administer elections.
Election officials from 24 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia also warned that the proposed changes were being introduced too close to the elections and could prevent eligible voters from receiving or returning their ballots.
Some Republican-led states, however, backed Trump in court filings, including Florida, Louisiana and Montana.
Seven Republican state election officials separately warned the Supreme Court that allowing substantial changes to mail-ballot procedures so close to the elections could result in “mistakes, delays, and confusion.”
Election Officials Prepare for Disruption
Local election officials across the country had already begun preparing contingency plans in case the courts allowed Trump’s proposed changes to take effect.
In Cherokee County, Georgia, election director Anne Dover warned that the new requirements could potentially disenfranchise thousands of voters.
The heavily Republican county voted approximately 69% for Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Dover said around 10,000 residents had voted by mail during that election.
Officials in other states also raised concerns about the financial and logistical consequences of changing election procedures so close to the November vote.
Josh Zygielbaum, clerk and recorder for Adams County, Colorado, said implementing the new requirements at such a late stage could have had a major impact because election materials had already been printed.
Colorado is among the states that conduct elections predominantly through the mail.
Mail Voting Remains Widely Used
Voting by mail remains an important part of the US electoral system, with around 30% of voters casting postal ballots during the 2024 general election.
The system is particularly important in states such as Oregon, Washington and Colorado, where mail voting is used extensively or forms the primary method of conducting elections.
Republican voters also rely on mail ballots in many parts of the country, meaning that significant changes to the system could affect voters across party lines.
Some states had already begun distributing mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections, while others had printed their election materials and would have faced substantial costs if the rules had been changed.
Earlier Supreme Court Setback for Trump
Monday’s decision is not Trump’s first Supreme Court setback over mail voting.
In June, the justices ruled that states could count ballots postmarked by Election Day even when those ballots arrived after polling stations had closed.
The ruling rejected an effort by the Trump administration to prevent states from counting ballots that were received after Election Day.
Trump has long questioned the reliability of mail voting and has repeatedly made false claims that widespread electoral fraud was responsible for his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
The latest Supreme Court ruling means existing mail-voting procedures will remain in place for the time being as the legal battle over the administration’s proposed changes continues.
With the November midterm elections approaching, election officials across the country are now expected to proceed under the existing rules while awaiting further developments from the courts.
