The US Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's bid to give the Postal Service a central role in deciding who can receive a mail ballot. The ruling came late on Monday, about seven weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.
What the court decided
In a 7-2 decision, the justices declined to let the new postal rules take effect for this year's elections. The plan would have required states to adopt a uniform ballot envelope and to submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal the Postal Service was building. Under the plan, the agency could have refused to deliver ballots from states that did not comply.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a one-paragraph concurrence. He said there was "at least a fair prospect" that the postal rules fell within the agency's authority, but that imposing them so close to the midterms "would be arbitrary and capricious" because state and local officials would not have enough time to implement them.
Why lower courts had blocked the rules
The Supreme Court ruling followed months of litigation. On Sunday, US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, blocked the same rules. He concluded that Congress authorized the Postal Service to move mail, not to force states to enroll voters in a federal portal or to refuse ballots that failed new checks.
A whistleblower report had warned that the requirements could lead to millions of mail ballots never being sent, because the agency's work to comply was rushed. Roughly one third of US voters cast ballots by mail in recent elections, and Democratic campaigns had built turnout plans around those ballots.
What comes next
Election officials in states that rely on mail voting said the ruling removes uncertainty for November. The question of what the Postal Service may require of states will keep being debated, but not before the election.