DOJ asks Supreme Court to allow Trump’s USPS action on mail-in ballots to proceed ahead of midterm elections

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to green-light a new Postal Service rule that would exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani last week issued a temporary restraining order blocking parts of the rule from being implemented.

“With respect to the November 2026 election, the order thus partially nullifies the Postal Service’s efforts to address the risk that the federal mails will be used to perpetrate voter fraud, a particularly pernicious species of fraud that dilutes the votes of lawful voters, prevents election results from reflecting the will of the American people, and undermines ‘public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process,’” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the application.

While Talwani’s order “allows the Postal Service and the States to continue taking steps to ensure that their envelopes satisfy the rule’s requirements, the order risks sowing confusion and chaos because it makes those preparatory steps voluntary, rather than mandatory,” Sauer wrote.

There is a “grave risk,” Sauer wrote, “that States may not have taken the necessary steps to comply due to the false sense of latitude created by the court’s improper order, potentially depriving those States’ citizens of the ability to vote by mail.”

The filing seeks an immediate stay of Talwani’s order while the case proceeds through the appeals court.

The timing of the request was unexpected, since the administration already had a pending appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and because Talwani was expected to rule Thursday on whether to issue a preliminary injunction.

In her ruling last week , Talwani sided with states and voting rights groups that claimed the rule unlawfully usurped states’ power to regulate their own elections, which would need congressional approval, and left them facing an “impossible” timeline to comply in time for the November elections.