Restoration Responds: Supreme Court Blocks Trump's Mail Ballot Security Rule—For Now

The Left didn't beat this rule on the merit—they just ran out the clock

On Sept. 14, the Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump administration's emergency request to enforce a new U.S. Postal Service mail-in ballot rule that stemmed from a March executive order. The rule would have required states to attach a voter-tracking barcode to envelopes that would allow the Postal Service to track each ballot and tie it to the voter.

A majority of the justices said the administration was "unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge" and left in place a preliminary injunction issued by liberal U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, the same Obama-appointed judge who tried to block the underlying executive order before the Postal Service had finalized it.

Mail-in voting is untrustworthy and ripe for fraud and human error. Trump’s executive order coincided with the Republican Senate’s failure to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE America Act), which would limit mail-in voting to military personnel, overseas voters, and those who genuinely cannot vote in person. As Restoration News previously noted, the rule purposely did not go as far as Trump's order stipulated to make it likelier to succeed on the merits against legal challenges. But time ran out before it could get that far.

Dissenting Justices Samuel Alitoand Clarence Thomas wrote that the Postal Service has broad statutory authority to regulate the handling and delivery of the mail and noted the court had previously described some of the plaintiffs' claims as a "Hail Mary pass." Even Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who voted with the majority, conceded that there is "at least a fair prospect" that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority. His objection was the timing. Applying the rule to the 2026 elections, he said, would be arbitrary because state and local officials no longer have enough time to implement it.

That's the real tragedy here. Trump signed the order in March. The Postal Service didn't publish its final rule until Aug. 21. Talwani's injunction followed within days. And by the time the administration's emergency challenge reached the Court, some states had already mailed ballots.

The lesson for every Republican administration is straightforward: anticipate that the Left will sue over any executive order or agency rule on election integrity and begin the process early enough that litigation can run its course before the next election.

How We Got Here

• Trump's March executive order directed the Postal Service to create trackable, barcoded standards for mail-in ballots and to verify recipients against state-submitted voter lists.
• When the Postal Service published its final rule, it narrowed Trump's original directive to make it more palatable to the courts.
• Judge Talwani blocked the rule from taking effect in the midterms.
• On Sept. 14, the Supreme Court declined to lift Talwani's injunction, with Alito and Thomas dissenting and Kavanaugh conceding the rule would likely succeed on the merits alone if there was more time before the midterms.

Why It Matters

• Mail-in voting remains the least secure way to cast a ballot. Without tracking and eligibility verification, election officials cannot confirm ballots reach only qualified, registered voters.
• Running out the clock through litigation is a deliberate strategy of Democrats. Anti-election integrity activists didn't need to win on the law. They only needed to outlast the calendar to affect the 2026 midterm elections. This case shows the tactic works if Republicans don't plan ahead.
• The legal groundwork is already laid. With Kavanaugh acknowledging the rule's likely legality, the door remains open for the rule to succeed—eventually.

What Can I Do?

Contact your senator today at SaveActNow.com and demand passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would greatly limit mail-in voting.

Early voting and mail voting will begin soon. Absentee and mail-in dates and deadlines for every state are available through the Voter Reference Foundation's early and absentee voting reference guide here.

The Takeaway

This rule lost a battle over timing, not the war over the law. With Alito and Thomas dissenting outright and Kavanaugh acknowledging the rule likely falls within the Postal Service's authority, there is a strong chance this rule—or one like it—will be upheld and in force well before the 2028 presidential election.