Supreme Court backs Trump’s bid to restrict mail voting as states push back
The Supreme Court has given Donald Trump a temporary boost in his effort to restrict mail-in voting.
Supreme Court allows Trump to move forward with his mail voting plan
Part of his executive order will move forward, but legal battles continue ahead of the November midterms.
However, it is to be noted that the justices have not ruled Trump’s election order lawful. Instead, the court argues that the states challenged the policy too early and now there is a possibility for more lawsuits and another Supreme Court showdown.
Trump signed the executive order in March and directed the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security to take on new roles in election administration.
As reported by CNN, the Supreme Court has greenlit DHS to implement the plans to create state-specific lists of people it considers eligible U.S. citizens. Per the order, USPS can impose new requirements on states that want to send ballots through the mail.
States would have to provide USPS with lists of eligible voters and add tracking barcodes to ballot envelopes. According to the administration, these measures will strengthen election security.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis called it a “major win for the security of American elections.” She added, “These are commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans are electing American leaders.”
But Democratic-led states see the plan differently and have asserted that Trump is giving federal agencies unprecedented power over state-run elections.
The states previously sued to block the order and a federal court in Boston stopped its implementation across the 23 Democratic-led states that challenged it.
After this move, Trump’s administration took the dispute to the Supreme Court.
Why Donald Trump’s mail-in ballot plan might face more legal hurdles
The justices did not decide whether Trump’s executive order violates the law. Instead, they focused on whether the states filed their challenge too early.
Trump’s Justice Department argued that the case was not “ripe” because USPS and DHS had not finished developing the rules needed to carry out the order.
Since USPS issued a 95-page rule about barcodes and voter eligibility information on Friday, August 21, the president’s opponents have another chance to challenge the policy.
The Supreme Court’s order said, “If the Postal Service’s final rule harms the states, they may challenge that rule.”
Per CNN’s Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladek, the ruling only gives Trump a win “for the moment. But he warned that it does not clear the way for the entire plan.
“As soon as tomorrow, a Massachusetts district court may block the underlying USPS rule at issue — which is the real thing to watch heading into November,” he said.
Three liberal justices have also voiced strong opposition to the ruling. For Trump, the current scenario is an important procedural victory, but the fight over his mail-in voting plan is far from settled.