Supreme Court Lifts One Block On Trump Mail-in Voting Plan

The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a block on President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at limiting mail-in voting but left uncertain whether it will allow him to implement major changes to those procedures before the midterms.

The justices voted, 6 to 3 along the usual ideological lines, to overturn an injunction a judge placed on Trump’s order in June. The lower-court ruling concluded that the president’s plan to use the Postal Service to limit the delivery of ballots likely exceeded his authority and had the potential to disenfranchise legitimate voters.

More than 20 blue states sued to block Trump’s order, saying it threatens to upend their planning for the midterms in November and intrudes on their authority to administer elections.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority said those states lacked standing in part because it’s unclear just how the administration will implement the order, although the administration on Friday released a final Postal Service rule addressing more details.

“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell. But the Order itself does not harm the States, so the District Court lacked jurisdiction to bar the Government from trying to implement it,” the court said in its unsigned majority ruling.

Voting rights and civil rights groups are also suing over Trump’s plan. The same judge who issued the order the Supreme Court lifted Monday also granted a separate injunction against a key part of Trump’s order in that case. It’s unclear how that litigation will be impacted by the high court’s order.