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🇴🇲 Oman /Crime & Justice

Trump administration makes fresh Supreme Court appeal to enact USPS mail-ballot rule before midterms

From Times of Oman · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • The U.S. Postal Service has asked the Supreme Court to allow its new mail-ballot rule to take effect before the 2026 midterm elections.
  • A Massachusetts judge blocked the rule, saying the Postal Service exceeded its authority and warning that enforcement could disenfranchise voters who rely on mail ballots.
  • The Justice Department said ballots had already begun entering the mail system in North Carolina, with several other states preparing to follow.

The Trump administration is again asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for a new U.S. Postal Service rule governing mail ballots, as states begin sending ballots for the November midterm elections.

In an emergency filing on Sunday, the Postal Service said mail ballots had already begun going out in North Carolina and that other states would soon follow. It asked the justices to act quickly, placing the dispute among the court’s most significant emergency election cases in years.

The filing follows an earlier USPS appeal on September 3, which sought to suspend a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts. Talwani later issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rule. Her 49-page decision extended an emergency order issued on August 26 and froze the administration’s postal mandates for the 2026 election cycle.

nearly guarantee significant disenfranchisement

· Indira TalwaniThe Massachusetts judge’s warning about enforcing new mail-ballot requirements while ballots were already being sent.

Talwani ruled that the Postal Service had exceeded its constitutional authority by imposing administrative requirements on state election programs. The Constitution, she said, assigns election administration to Congress and the states rather than federal agencies. She also warned that enforcing complex requirements while ballots were already being sent would “nearly guarantee significant disenfranchisement” for eligible voters who depend on mail voting.

The USPS rule would require state and local election officials to upload lists of mail voters to a federal portal. North Carolina has already started mailing ballots, while Alabama is due to begin on September 9. At least five more states are expected to start mailing ballots on September 13, according to the Justice Department. “Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” the department told the Supreme Court, warning that leaving the injunction in place could create confusion and chaos because preparatory steps would remain voluntary rather than mandatory.

Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them

· U.S. Department of JusticeThe Justice Department’s argument for allowing the USPS rule to take effect quickly.
About this summary

Originally published by Times of Oman in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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