Overview
- The Supreme Court declined the administration’s emergency request on Monday, leaving lower‑court injunctions by Judges Indira Talwani and Carl Nichols in place so the USPS rule cannot be enforced before the November midterms.
- The contested Postal Service rule would have required states to submit lists of mail‑ballot recipients to a USPS portal and use agency‑approved outbound and return envelopes with unique barcodes, and it allowed the USPS to refuse noncompliant mailings.
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short concurrence saying the rule might be lawful but that states lack time to implement it for the elections, while Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented and would have let it proceed.
- A USPS whistleblower and multiple election officials warned the portal was not ready and that a single barcode error could cause an entire batch of ballots to be discarded, a risk courts cited when blocking the rule.
- The legal fight began with the president’s March executive order and is likely to continue after the midterms, with the outcome carrying direct consequences for how a large share of Americans cast ballots and which party benefits.