Overview
- The Supreme Court on Monday refused to lift lower‑court injunctions that would have allowed a new USPS rule requiring unique barcoded envelopes and state uploads to a federal portal to take effect for the November midterms.
- U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the administration will comply with the court’s order while continuing separate election‑security efforts through other channels.
- President Trump publicly attacked the court after the decision, and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented while Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority but wrote that implementing the rule this close to the election was legally and practically infeasible.
- Trial judges and election officials warned that the USPS portal, barcode matching and new envelope specs were untested and rushed, with a USPS whistleblower saying the changes could cause mass rejections or delivery failures if imposed before states could adapt.
- The ruling preserves current state‑run mail voting procedures for voters this fall but leaves the bigger constitutional fight over federal authority on election administration to be decided in ongoing lower‑court litigation, a development that could continue to affect public confidence in the results.