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🇺🇸 United States /Crime & Justice

Trump again appeals to Supreme Court over mail-ballot restrictions as midterms loom

From PBS NewsHour · () English

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

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency In the courts
  • The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal judge blocked implementation of new rules governing mail ballots.
  • The appeal came as North Carolina prepared to send out mail ballots and amid uncertainty over an online system intended to track tens of millions of ballots.
  • A federal judge questioned whether the Postal Service could implement the rule and whether the administration had legal authority to impose it.

The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Thursday with a question that remained unanswered in a Boston courtroom: Was the system intended to control mail ballots even ready to operate?

I don’t even have a declaration from the Postal Service: ‘This is how it will work.’ I don’t have it. I have nothing.

· Indira TalwaniThe federal judge questioned whether the government had demonstrated that the mail-ballot system was ready.

The administration asked the justices to reject a federal judge’s order blocking the Postal Service from implementing a new rule. The appeal came hours after Department of Justice attorney Michael Velchik could not tell Judge Indira Talwani whether the computer system governing the plan was operational.

The timing added urgency. North Carolina was scheduled to begin shipping mail ballots on Friday, launching a wave of ballot deliveries to states preparing for the November midterm elections. The appeal formed part of last-minute litigation over President Donald Trump’s restrictions, while separate challenges to his executive order continued in lower courts.

experiment

· Indira TalwaniTalwani used the term to describe the government’s apparent effort to test whether the system would work during the election.

Under the order, the Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots from states that failed to use a uniform envelope design. States would also have to upload lists of eligible mail voters to an online portal. If the information did not match the details on ballot envelopes, the ballots would not be sent.

fully implement the rule

· Michael VelchikThe Justice Department attorney said the Postal Service would carry out the new rule.

Talwani repeatedly pressed the government over the plan’s practical readiness. “I don’t even have a declaration from the Postal Service: ‘This is how it will work.’ I don’t have it. I have nothing,” she said, later describing the process as an “experiment” to determine whether the system would work during the election. Velchik said the Postal Service would “fully implement the rule,” but argued that the central legal issue was whether Talwani had the authority to stop it. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has previously allowed the plan to proceed, but has not ruled on whether it is lawful.

The $64,000 question is, is this authorized by the statute?

· Michael VelchikVelchik framed the dispute as a question of the administration’s legal authority.
About this summary

Originally published by PBS NewsHour 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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