Tonight, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected the Trump Administration’s attempt to impose and enforce sweeping new mail-in ballot delivery restrictions that threatened to severely disrupt the midterm elections. The restrictions would have required states to provide voter information through a federal portal and comply with new USPS ballot-envelope requirements, with noncompliant ballot mail at risk of rejection, potentially disenfranchising voters by preventing their ballots from being delivered and ultimately silencing their voices.
In its ruling, the Court denied the Trump Administration’s emergency request to put the lower-court injunction on hold, meaning any new USPS mail-ballot rules cannot take effect for this year’s mid-term general election. In denying the stay, the Court stated that the government was unlikely to win on the merits of the case. The ruling comes one day after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction blocking the same Postal Service rule in NAACP v. Trump, brought by the Lawyers Committee for the NAACP, Common Cause, and Black Voters Matter.
Voting by mail for the midterm elections has already begun in some states, with others just weeks away. As a result of this ruling, the U.S. Postal Service must continue delivering mail ballots as it is supposed to — free from interference or restrictions that could have caused chaos and mass disenfranchisement.
In response to this ruling, Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued the following statement:
“Tonight, at least for now, one avenue for sowing election chaos has been blocked. The Supreme Court has joined lower federal courts, which have consistently rejected the Trump Administration’s efforts to allow these last-minute Postal Service restrictions to take effect. This action by the nation’s highest court follows the preliminary injunction that states and voting rights advocates secured last week in federal court in Massachusetts for the 2026 elections, as well as a broader nationwide injunction obtained in a different case litigated by the Lawyers’ Committee in federal court in the District of Columbia. Our injunction blocks the same dangerous ballot-mail scheme as in Massachusetts, while going further and halting USPS from implementing or enforcing the final rule nationwide and past 2026.
“These rulings follow a pattern of civil rights advocates prevailing, and the Trump Administration losing, in cases where federal courts have rejected efforts by this Administration to upend established election norms — including the Justice Department’s long losing streak in its unprecedented campaign to obtain sensitive voter data from states.
“Nevertheless, we encourage Americans to check their voter registration status and to vote early. All voters planning to vote by mail should mail in your ballot as soon as possible, track your ballot online where available, and contact the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE or 866ourvote.org with any questions.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. The Lawyers’ Committee implements its mission and objectives by marshaling the pro bono resources of the bar for litigation, public policy, advocacy and other forms of service by lawyers to the cause of civil rights.
