The Supreme Court blocks Trump's stricter postal voting rules before the US midterms

President Donald Trump's government has suffered a defeat before the Supreme Court in the legal dispute over stricter rules for postal voting in the USA. The Supreme Court declined to stay a lower court's ruling that has so far blocked the Trump administration from implementing its new rules. The Supreme Court said it was unlikely that the government would succeed in its challenge to the lower court's injunction on the merits.

The US government wanted to get the US Supreme Court to ensure that its stricter postal voting rules were introduced before the midterm elections in early November. The fact that this now leaves the order of a lower court in force means in practice that the states can continue to send their postal voting documents according to the standards that previously applied. In some places this has already happened.

At the end of March, Trump ordered that the US Postal Service should only send postal voting documents to people who are on a voter list previously drawn up by the states. According to critics, this would transform the postal service from simply delivering election documents to a control body in the election process.

Federal judge on Trump plans: probably unconstitutional

The US government's move led to a legal dispute that dragged on for a long time in several courts.

A lower court federal judge in Boston halted Trump's plans with an injunction at the end of August. The president's decree is "a probably unconstitutional regulation that is practically impossible to comply with in view of the 2026 midterm elections," she wrote in her justification. It is also unrealistic to implement it so shortly before the election.

In response to the blockade, Trump appealed to an appeals court, but then went to the Supreme Court before the decision was made.

As is often the case with urgent applications, the Supreme Court did not provide any detailed reasons for its decision. However, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was once nominated by Trump for the post, said in a concurring statement on the decision that in his opinion there was too little time to adequately implement the new rules before the midterm elections.

The Supreme Court had already made a decision in the legal dispute in August. At that time, he overturned another court order against Trump's postal voting plans - but for procedural reasons.

Critic: Trump wanted to reduce the chances of Democrats

Critics accused Trump of wanting to make voting by mail more difficult with his plans for stricter postal voting rules and thus disadvantage the Democratic Party. Their electorate traditionally opts for postal voting more often. In view of the plans that were pushed ahead at short notice before the midterms, Trump was also confronted with accusations of causing confusion and chaos before the elections.

The US government, however, defended its plans with the argument that it wanted to prevent alleged election fraud.

What the midterm elections are about

On November 3rd, Americans will vote on, among other things, the seats in the House of Representatives and some of the seats in the Senate in the US Congress. The Republicans currently hold a slim majority in both chambers and want to defend it. If Trump's party loses, the US President would have a much worse chance of implementing his policies in the two years or so remaining in his term of office.

Trump continues to sow distrust in fair elections in the USA. He has been falsely claiming for years that he was cheated out of his victory in the 2020 presidential election - although this has been widely refuted.

Democrat Newsom welcomes Supreme Court decision

California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom accused Trump of "attacks on democracy" and welcomed the Supreme Court's decision. His state was one of many in the country that went to court over Trump's move. “The American people finally have certainty about our country’s electoral process,” Newsom wrote on Platform X. Postal voting is open to everyone who needs it.