President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday again asked the Supreme Court to allow the US Postal Service plan for mail ballots to take effect immediately, a mostly procedural move that nonetheless underscores the president’s desire to restrict mail voting during the critical midterm elections.
In its emergency appeal, the Postal Service noted that mail ballots for the November midterms are already being sent in one state, North Carolina, and that other states will soon follow. The USPS asked the high court to quickly allow it to implement its rule, setting up one of the most significant election cases on the court’s quick-turn docket in years.
The Supreme Court was already considering an emergency appeal filed by the USPS on Sept. 3 that urged the justices to allow the agency to implement the new ballot rule ahead of the November elections that will determine which party controls Congress. In that appeal, the USPS asked the Supreme Court to stay a temporary restraining order from US District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts that barred the agency from moving forward for two weeks.
On Friday, a day after the Justice Department filed that appeal, Talwani ruled again, handing down a preliminary injunction. That subsequent order blocked the USPS plan indefinitely. It is that second, indefinite block on the plan that the administration appealed to the Supreme Court on Sunday. Shortly after filing the second appeal on Sunday, the administration withdrew the first case.
