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Supreme Court rejects Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions
The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order to restrict mail-in voting, for now. LiveNOW's Shawna Khalafi has more.
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order to restrict mail-in voting, for now.
The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years.
RELATED: Trump administration again asks Supreme Court to allow mail-ballot restrictions
An election worker processes mail-in ballots for the California state primary election at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center on June 05, 2026 in City of Industry, California. (Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
SCOTUS rejects Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions
Dig deeper:
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the brief order. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration later.
This latest ruling comes after a federal judge on Sept. 13 ordered that the U.S. Postal Service not implement Trump's executive order limiting mail balloting.
The backstory:
A week earlier, the Trump administration renewed its request on Sept. 6 for the Supreme Court to permit new restrictions on mail-in ballots before the midterm elections.
Supreme Court justices were considering the Trump administration’s appeal of an order by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston that banned the Postal Service from enforcing its new rule on mail voting before the November midterm elections.
The other side:
Democratic states and voting rights groups say the changes are unconstitutional. Election officials contend there isn’t enough time to revise their systems to comply with the new Postal Service directives.
Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions
The Trump administration plan would require states to adopt a uniform envelope style and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal. The Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots to states that didn’t comply.
Mail ballots are already being sent out in at least three states — Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin — and more states are preparing to distribute mail ballots this week.
RELATED: What the Supreme Court's mail-in ballot decision could mean
The Trump administration has framed the mail-ballot restrictions as commonsense changes that are within its power to regulate the mail.
Trump has targeted mail balloting for a while after he falsely blamed it for his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden and alleged it creates a pathway to fraud amid his own use of the voting method.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press and previous reporting by LiveNOW from FOX. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.