President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to make elections more secure ahead of the fall midterms hit another snag late Wednesday.
Not only is the GOP-controlled Congress doing little to help the president, but now Joe Biden’s DEI justice on the U.S. Supreme Court has created her own roadblock.
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The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow full enforcement of Trump’s executive order imposing additional restrictions on mail-in voting.
In the filing, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that a federal judge’s order blocking portions of the executive order in 23 states and the District of Columbia was “extraordinary” and said it “flouts settled” legal principles governing when federal courts may intervene in disputes.
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Sauer also asked the Supreme Court to issue an immediate administrative stay, which would temporarily suspend the lower court’s ruling while the justices consider the administration’s request.
But Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson later Monday declined the administration’s request without issuing a formal ruling, instead ordering the plaintiffs to respond to the government’s emergency application within seven days.
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“The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to restore key parts of President Trump’s election integrity executive order, including provisions directing USPS to change federal mail-ballot procedures, arguing lower courts blocked the policy before any final agency action,” SCOTUSBlog noted on X.
Trump signed the executive order at the center of the case, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” on March 31.
Among its provisions, the order directs the U.S. Postal Service to develop new rules governing mail-in and absentee ballots and instructs the Department of Homeland Security to compile state lists identifying U.S. citizens who are at least 18 years old.
Under the proposed rules, the USPS would be permitted to deliver mail-in ballots only to voters whose names appear on those state citizenship lists.
A coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, challenged the executive order in federal court in Massachusetts.
The states argued that the order conflicts with constitutional provisions granting states the authority to determine voter eligibility and regulate the “Times, Places, and Manner” of conducting congressional elections.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, agreed with those arguments and, on June 25, issued an order barring the federal government from enforcing the executive order’s mail-in ballot and state citizenship list provisions for the Nov. 3, 2026, elections in the states participating in the lawsuit.
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On Saturday, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit turned down the government’s request to intervene.
If the order were “to take effect for the elections taking place” in the fall, the majority wrote, “it would sow confusion and threaten disenfranchisement of many eligible voters.”
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to intervene, arguing that the lawsuit is premature because the federal agencies responsible for carrying out the executive order have not yet determined how its provisions will be implemented.
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In the filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer contended that the courts should not consider the states’ challenge until the agencies have finalized their implementation plans.
Sauer argued that even if the courts ultimately determine the states’ lawsuit is properly before them, Talwani’s order should be stayed because allowing it to remain in effect would cause what he described as “serious irreparable harm.”
“Even if the agencies’ implementation plans end up being entirely lawful,” Sauer wrote.
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“There is not enough time to obtain ordinary appellate relief from the injunction in order to carry them out before the November election, especially given that any such plans will need to be implemented well before November given the timing of election procedures concerning voter-roll verification and mail voting,” Sauer added.
Jackson’s order requires states to respond to the government’s request by Aug. 13.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
