US President Donald Trump has castigated the Supreme Court for blocking his administration from putting in place new restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
All three are nominees of Trump, who targeted Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. “He said the justices were ‘not the people I interviewed’, and he said they were ‘merely a shell of their original selves’.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled against the administration’s proposed ballot rules, overturning a lower-court order that allowed the US Postal Service to enforce them. The government had a 75% chance of failing to overturn the injunction, the court said.
The proposed rules would have mandated that states had lists of voters who were eligible to mail ballots and would have created new rules for ballot envelopes. Election officials have said it would be a challenge to implement the changes near the Nov. elections.
Trump alleged that the court was being swayed by what he called the “Radical Left” and that its rulings had been “very bad for the country.” He also cited other decisions that have been unfavorable to his government, such as tariff and birthright citizenship.
Kavanaugh said the new rules should not be in effect for the 2026 elections, but said he might come to a different conclusion if it comes back to the court after the election. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
In some areas of the United States, mail voting has already started, and about one-third of voters cast their ballots by mail. The ruling from the Supreme Court means that states will be able to keep their current methods for conducting the midterm elections.
The decision is another big blow to Trump’s bid to alter how mail ballots are processed in November.
