Los Angeles Times
· collected 2026-09-15 · by David G. Savage, Kevin Rector
Supreme Court halts Trump’s proposed limits on mail ballots for this year’s elections
asserted
Court → halt → elections
-
Click here to listen to this article -
- The administration could try to impose new regulations for the 2028 elections.
uncertain
administration → click → elections
The decision in USPS vs. California is a victory for California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and the attorneys general for 22 other Democratic-led states who sued to block the new rules.
asserted
who → lead → rules
The Supreme Court has blocked President Trump’s plan to restrict voting by mail, ruling it is too late to impose new postal service rules for the November election.
asserted
it → block → election
The justices on Monday turned down an emergency appeal from Trump’s lawyers, who argued the government needed a new and untested system of unique bar codes to track all the ballots of the tens of millions of people who vote by mail.
asserted
who → turn → mail
Instead, the justices left in place a judge’s order that prevents the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing the new rules for the midterm elections.
asserted
that → leave → elections
Concurring, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh agreed it was too late to enforce the new rules for this election.
asserted
it → concur → election
Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas dissented.
asserted
Jr. → dissent → ?
A federal judge has already halted the plan nationwide, but the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to revive it, arguing the federal government would be seriously harmed by voter fraud if it does not.
asserted
it → halt → fraud
The decision in USPS vs. California is a victory for California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and the attorneys general for 22 other Democratic-led states who sued to block the new rules.
asserted
who → lead → rules
Last week, they warned there would be chaos and confusion if Trump’s rules were put in effect now.
asserted
rules → warn → effect
Bonta cheered the decision late Monday, calling it “a victory for our democracy and a powerful affirmation of the rule of law” in a case where the stakes “could not have been higher.”
uncertain
stakes → cheer → case
“Voting is the fundamental right from which all other rights flow, and all 50 states allow ballots to be cast by mail in some form.
asserted
ballots → flow → form
In California and several other states, mail voting is the primary way elections are conducted,” Bonta said.
asserted
Bonta → conduct → California
“Had this rule been allowed to take effect, the consequences would have been catastrophic.”
asserted
consequences → allow → effect
He said his office “will remain vigilant in safeguarding our elections,” and urged voters to make their voices heard.
asserted
voices → say → voters
Under the proposed rules, state and county election officials across the nation would be required to enroll each voter with a unique bar code and submit this data to a new online portal that, as of last week, was not yet functioning.
asserted
that → propose → week
Without the individualized bar codes, states could not send ballots through the mail.
uncertain
states → send → mail
In California, that would mean election officials would have to enroll 23 million voters with new bar codes before state ballots could be mailed.
uncertain
ballots → mean → codes
“Compliance with the USPS’ rule would be impossible ahead of the midterms, meaning that millions of voters would be unable to vote by mail and some would not be able to vote at all,” the state attorneys general told the court last week.
asserted
general → mean → court
The impact would not be limited to Democratic-leaning states.
asserted
impact → limit → states
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said it would be “an unmitigated disaster” if the new rules were put into effect now.
asserted
rules → say → effect
About 30% of the nation’s voters — and 80% of Californians — cast ballots by mail in 2024.
asserted
% → cast → 2024
But Trump has maintained, without providing evidence, that voting by mail leads to widespread cheating and fraud.
asserted
voting → maintain → cheating
In March, he issued an executive order that called on the postal service to do more to “enhance election integrity.”
asserted
that → issue → integrity
“Unique ballot envelope identifiers, such as bar codes, enable confirmation that only citizens receive and cast ballots,” he said.
asserted
he → enable → ballots
Elections experts say there is no evidence of such widespread fraud, despite robust audits and other searches for it.
asserted
experts → say → it
State attorneys general argued that the Constitution entrusts states, not federal officials, to conduct elections.
asserted
Constitution → argue → elections
While Congress may impose new rules, it has not done so to limit voting by mail or to empower the postal service to do so, they said.
uncertain
they → impose → service
Across California and the nation, Democratic leaders and voting rights advocates are ramping up coordination and gaming out responses to a raft of potential actions by the Trump administration to subvert the November vote or deny its outcome.
asserted
leaders → ramp → outcome
Trump and his lawyers maintained the administration had a duty to combat fraud, including in elections.
asserted
administration → maintain → elections
Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer described the new rules as “modest measures that will help prevent and restrain potential gross abuses of the mails to perpetrate a fraud on the Nation.”
asserted
that → describe → Nation
And he said the federal government, the states and the voting public would face irreparable harm if the new Postal Service rules were not allowed to be applied to the coming election.
asserted
rules → say → election
But U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, in Boston, ruled the postal service may not put its new regulations into effect for the Nov. 3 election.
uncertain
service → rule → election
She found the Trump administration had presented no evidence to the court of widespread fraud, while the states had presented ample evidence that implementing such a system on such a fast timeline posed tremendous risk.
asserted
implementing → find → risk
The 1st Circuit Court affirmed her order and said the administration’s lawyers “have not even seriously challenged the ... detailed findings about the chaos and widespread disenfranchisement that would occur between now and November 3 should the USPS rule take immediate effect.”
asserted
rule → affirm → effect
On Sunday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee — also blocked the new Postal Service rules from being implemented in separate cases brought by the NAACP and Democratic groups, finding they clearly exceeding the Postal Service’s authority in elections.
asserted
they → block → elections
What the future will hold is unclear.
uncertain
hold → hold → What
The courts did not declare the new rules to be illegal or unconstitutional, though multiple lower courts have suggested that parts of the plan likely would be — including by exceeding the Postal Service’s authority to intervene in elections.
uncertain
parts → declare → elections
Much of the debate before the appellate and Supreme Court related to the rushed timeline under which the Postal Service was seeking to implement the changes.
asserted
Service → relate → changes
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
