US Supreme Court rejects DOJ bid to stay injunction blocking USPS mail-in ballot rule – JURIST

The US Supreme Court on Monday denied an emergency application from the Department of Justice seeking a stay of a nationwide preliminary injunction that blocks the United States Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing a new mail-in ballot rule ahead of the November midterm elections.

Stemming from a March 2026 executive order by President Donald Trump, the USPS promulgated its final administrative rule, Ballot Mail for Federal Elections, in late August. The regulation’s new provisions, outlined in section 705.24 of the Domestic Mail Manual, mandate that states using the postal service to administer elections must adhere to pre-approved ballot-envelope designs, apply specialized barcodes unique to each voter, and upload their voter rosters to a USPS electronic portal before any election mail can be delivered.

In their per curiam order in United States Postal Service v. California, the Supreme Court stated that the federal government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge. Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a concurring opinion emphasizing the practical impossibility of enforcing the new regulations this close to the election, writing:

In my view, based on the briefing the Court has received at this interim stage, there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority. But applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.

Justice Samuel Alito, alongside Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented from the denial. Alito argued that the Postal Service holds broad statutory authority to regulate the use of the federal mails and criticized the challengers’ claims as unlikely to succeed, comparing them to an uncompleted “Hail Mary pass.” He noted that the injunction causes irreparable harm to the federal government’s goals and that implementing the rule would enhance the visibility of federal ballot mail in order to better detect election fraud.

The Supreme Court’s decision upholds a September 4 preliminary injunction issued by US District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts, who found that immediate implementation of the final rule threatened the disenfranchisement of millions of voters. Last week, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the block, ruling that the administration had not demonstrated proper entitlement to a stay.

Monday’s ruling marks a significant shift from an earlier Supreme Court decision in August, which had temporarily allowed the President’s executive directive to proceed on standing and ripeness grounds because the Postmaster General had not yet formally issued a final rule.