Trump takes mail-in voting battle to Supreme Court after two courts block his executive order
Photo: US Supreme Court in Washington, DC
USA: The Trump administration has escalated its fight over mail-in voting restrictions to the Supreme Court, filing an emergency request on Monday asking the justices to lift a block that has prevented implementation of the president’s executive order in 23 states ahead of the November midterm elections.
The move comes after the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit declined on Saturday to pause a lower court injunction that had blocked key provisions of the order — the second consecutive court to reject the administration's arguments in rapid succession.
According to CBS News, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the district court’s injunction is “extraordinary” and constitutes “an improper intrusion by a federal court into the workings of a coordinate branch of the Government.” He characterised the executive order as “general policy guidance” rather than direct regulatory action, arguing that federal agencies are still only developing plans to implement the president’s directives.
This means that any legal challenge may be premature because no concrete harm to the states has yet materialised. He also argued on urgency grounds, saying that if the Supreme Court does not intervene and the administration ultimately prevails, the harm to “voter integrity” from the November elections would be irreversible.
The order, signed by Trump in March, directs the Homeland Security Secretary to compile a “state citizenship list” of US citizens eligible to vote in each state and transmit those lists to each state, drawn from federal citizenship and naturalisation records. It also instructs the US Postal Service (USPS) to develop new rules for mail ballots, including requiring them to be marked in a specific envelope and restricting delivery to voters on the state-approved list.
District court sided with the states
US District Judge Indira Talwani had sided with the 23-state coalition in June, finding that Trump lacked the constitutional authority to direct the Department of Homeland Security to compile voter eligibility lists, and that USPS had no statutory authorisation to impose binding regulations on mail-in voting.
The First Circuit upheld her ruling over the weekend in a 2-1 decision, rejecting the premature-challenge argument by noting that the order set “rapidly approaching deadlines” that states had no practical choice but to respond to immediately.
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The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, must now decide whether to grant an emergency stay allowing the order to take effect while the broader legal fight continues, or allow the lower courts’ blocks to stand. The outcome will determine whether millions of mail-in voters in 23 states face new federal voting requirements ahead of November’s midterms, which is likely an election that will decide control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
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