Trump administration asks Supreme Court to reinstate mail-in ballot rules

The Trump administration on Sunday filed its third emergency appeal to the Supreme Court seeking to reinstate controversial mail-in ballot rules for the November midterm elections, directly challenging a preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts late last week. The application asks the justices to overturn an order by US District Judge Indira Talwani — an appointee of former President Barack Obama — that blocked enforcement of US Postal Service regulations requiring states to adopt standardized envelope designs, unique barcodes and an online verification database for tracking absentee ballot mailings nationwide.

The Justice Department argued in its filing that the USPS rules represent a lawful exercise of federal authority over the postal system rather than an unconstitutional intrusion into state election management. "While the States have primary authority to regulate the manner of elections, they cannot choose to use the federal mails to carry out their elections but then insist that their election-related mail is somehow exempt from the Postal Service's rulemaking authority," the application stated.

Constitutional clash over postal authority

Judge Talwani ruled Friday that the Postal Service had exceeded its statutory authority by attempting to regulate the "time, place, and manner" of elections — powers constitutionally reserved for individual states and Congress under the Elections Clause. She warned that forcing election offices to redesign envelopes and upload sensitive voter data to an unproven digital portal merely weeks before the Nov. 3 election would cause "inevitable" disenfranchisement, noting that many small rural jurisdictions lack the technical capacity to print required barcodes and that the online system remains non-operational.

The final USPS rule, issued Aug. 21, requires ballot envelopes to include official "Election Mail" logos and automation-compatible designs. State election officials must upload voter names and corresponding barcodes into the federal online database, while the regulation explicitly does not govern voter eligibility, ballot counting or voting deadlines.

Voting underway as legal battle continues

The administration contends that the district court's injunction halts a crucial security measure just as early voting begins across the country, with mail-in ballots already being cast in North Carolina and additional states preparing to follow suit in the coming days. Government attorneys said the administration would suffer irreparable harm without an immediate stay because reversing the judgment against implementation of the final rule would come too late for the 2026 midterms and would disrupt the ongoing electoral process.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has ordered opponents of the rule to file their response by Wednesday at 4:00 pm, according to court documents. The high court has not indicated when it might rule on the emergency application that seeks to implement the barcode and tracking requirements before the full election season begins.