WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s emergency application to stay a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the USPS “Ballot Mail for Federal Elections” rule for the 2026 midterms. The order leaves the injunction in place, so the new USPS rule cannot be enforced for the November 3 elections.
“Today’s ruling is a huge win for orderly elections this November,” AG Nick Brown released in a statement to the Lynnwood Times. “State and local elections officials can now focus on what they do best—administering legitimate elections that count every eligible ballot cast. Our office will remain vigilant around any other attempts by this administration to meddle in the current election while we continue the longer court fight against the administration’s illegal attack on mail-in voting.”
The unsigned majority held that the government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the injunction and that the equitable factors do not favor emergency relief. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with the majority in the denial; whereas Justices Samuel Alito and Clearance Thomas dissented.
The majority provided no detailed opinion. Their ruling simply stated that the government is “unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction” and that “the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court do not favor a stay.”
Justice Kavanaugh agreed writing that “there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority” under 39 U.S.C. §401(2).
AG Nick Brown called pre-November compliance timeline “practically impossible” and said “the chaos that would cause is exactly what Trump wants.”
Well, Justice Kavanaugh writing, “applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”
Justice Alito, joined by Justice Thomas, who both would have granted the Trump administration the stay, argued some organizational plaintiffs lack standing because their claimed injuries are abstract or based on unnamed members without the required specific allegations.
The states’ Elections Clause claim, Alito wrote, “collapses into an inquiry about whether the Postal Service has statutory authority.” Because Congress exempted most Postal Service actions from APA review (39 U.S.C. §410(a)), the states must rely on a nonstatutory ultra vires claim—which the Court has described as a “‘Hail Mary pass’ that ‘rarely succeeds.’”
Alito further wrote that USPS has “broad authority to regulate the mail” under §§401(2) and 404(a)(1), and the envelope, barcode, and portal requirements are not “entirely in excess” of that power or contrary to a specific statutory prohibition. He said the government faces irreparable harm because a later reversal would come too late for the midterms, and some of the timing problems were caused by the plaintiffs’ earlier premature lawsuits.
Litigation on the merits will now continue in the First Circuit. Kavanaugh’s concurrence leaves open the possibility that the new USPS rule could survive after the 2026 elections if states are given adequate implementation time.
The blocked USPS rule would have required states to use special envelopes with an Election Mail logo, high-speed sorting compatibility, and a unique barcode for each voter. States also had to get USPS design approval and upload voter names, addresses, and barcode data to a federal portal. Non-compliant ballots or those not matching the list would be rejected and returned instead of delivered.
The Trump administration has now exhausted all legal options leaving only a legislative path to implement his mail-in voting reforms — the SAVE America Act.
The SAVE America Act would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections and photo ID to vote. It has passed the House multiple times but has stalled in the Senate because of the filibuster. Passage before the November 3rd elections remain unlikely without the Senate axing the filibuster or calling the Democrat’s bluff by forcing a filibuster.
The battle to the Supreme Court by AG Brown to protect Washinton’s all-in vote-by-mail system commenced on Aug. 26, the day USPS published its final rule. Then on Aug. 27, Judge Indira Talwani issued a short-term restraining order blocking the rule. On Sept. 4 she replaced that order with a preliminary injunction limited to the November midterm election and only to the rule’s mandatory features. Then on Sept. 10 the First Circuit denied the Trump administration’s request to lift that injunction. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who handles emergency filings from the First Circuit, then set the briefing schedule and now the full Supreme Court rule denied the Trump administration’s request to block the lower court’s ruling preventing the new USPS rule from taking effect before the 2026 midterms.
Author: Mario Lotmore
