On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) declined to temporarily suspend a lower federal judge’s ruling regarding the Trump administration’s policies for mail-in ballots designed to be implemented by the various federal agencies, according to SCOTUSblog.
By declining the government’s request for a stay, SCOTUS inherently refused to suspend a ruling from a federal judge in Boston that prohibits the USPS and DHS (along with coordinating agencies) from enforcing certain parts of President Trump’s Executive Order 14399—Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.
Specifically, Judge Indira Talwani declared Sections 2 and 3 of the executive order as “legally void” and unconstitutional and Section 5 as merely a wish (precatory) and not a legal obligation.
Section 2 would have required the U.S. States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to work with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to compile “Confirmed Citizens Lists” for each state which would contain “individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State.”
Section 3 would have required the USPS to initiate a proposed rulemaking to specify that all outbound ballot mail be marked as “Official Election Mail, including through designated markings provided by USPS for this purpose,” be “automation-compatible and [bear] a unique Intelligent Mail barcode, or successor USPS technology, that facilitates tracking,” and undergo “a mail envelope design review by the USPS to ensure compliance with USPS mailing standards, including barcode placement.”
SCOTUS REJECTS Trump’s effort to curb mail-in voting 7-2, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissent: pic.twitter.com/zzGVXrad2f
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 14, 2026
Judge Talwani ruled that these sections violated the separation of powers.
Section 5 stated that the “Attorney General and the heads of executive departments and agencies (agencies) with relevant authority shall take all lawful steps to deter and address noncompliance with Federal law, including withholding Federal funds from noncompliant States and localities where such withholding is authorized by law.” Judge Talwani declared this section to be precatory – merely a wish, not a legal obligation.
In concurring with the majority decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that “there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority” but that to apply the rule before the November 3 general 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 dissented, and Justice Clarence Thomas signed onto the dissent. Alito argued that the Supreme Court “incorrectly denies the Government’s application for a stay of a universal injunction that bars implementation of a final rule concerning election ballot mail. Some of the plaintiffs lack standing, while the remainder are pursuing a claim that this Court has recently called a ‘Hail Mary pass’ that ‘rarely succeeds.’”
Alito wrote that “the plaintiff States’ statutory claim is based on a contestable reading of a broadly drawn statute empowering the Postal Service to regulate the mail” and that their plea regarding violation of separation of powers (ultra vires) would not be likely to succeed.
He also clearly disagreed with Kavanaugh’s conclusion, writing, “the Government has a strong interest in enforcing the rule, and implementing it will also ‘enhance the visibility of Federal Ballot Mail’ in order to better detect election fraud…On the other side of the balance, the plaintiff States invoke the practical effects of implementing the rule close to the midterm elections. I take that problem very seriously, but it is not enough to convince me to deny the application.”
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