The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court on Monday, July 27, to let it enforce key parts of President Donald Trump's executive order restricting mail voting while litigation continues. The emergency application seeks to pause lower-court rulings that blocked the measures in 23 states and the District of Columbia before the November 3 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake.
Trump's March 31 order directs the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile state-by-state lists of confirmed adult US citizens. It also instructs the Postal Service to develop rules under which mail and absentee ballots would be transmitted only to eligible voters on state participation lists, using secure envelopes and tracking barcodes. The White House presents the measures as protections for election integrity and against illegal noncitizen voting.
Democratic officials from the 23 states and Washington sued in federal court in Massachusetts. They argue that the Constitution assigns election administration primarily to states and gives Congress authority to impose national rules, leaving the president without power to make the ordered changes unilaterally. US District Judge Indira Talwani agreed in June and barred implementation of the citizenship-list and mail-ballot provisions for the plaintiff jurisdictions in the 2026 election.
A divided panel of the First US Circuit Court of Appeals declined over the weekend to suspend Talwani's injunction. The majority concluded that imposing the system during preparations for the autumn vote could create confusion and threaten to disenfranchise eligible voters. The injunction covers only the states and district that brought the case and only the November election; jurisdictions outside the lawsuit are not covered by that ruling.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the injunction is premature because federal agencies are still considering whether and how to implement the policy. He argued that waiting for the normal appeals process could make any eventual victory ineffective because election procedures must be established well before voting. The states contend that incomplete citizenship records and late operational changes could wrongly prevent qualified citizens from receiving ballots. Federal data cited by AP show that about 30 percent of ballots in the 2024 presidential election were cast by mail.
The Supreme Court directed the challenging states to respond by 4 p.m. Eastern time on August 3. The justices could then decide whether the blocked provisions may operate while the broader appeal proceeds, without yet resolving their ultimate legality. The decision will determine the immediate rules for millions of potential mail voters in the plaintiff states and will test the boundary between presidential authority and state control of elections only months before the midterms.
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