WASHINGTON—The Trump administration’s bid to deploy the U.S. Postal Service to regulate mail-in ballots is back at the Supreme Court for the second time in as many weeks.
The Supreme Court ordered the groups challenging the Postal Service rules to file a response by Tuesday morning, effectively guaranteeing that the justices won’t resolve the appeal before then. The rules have been blocked by a federal district judge who found they are likely unconstitutional.
“Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote, urging the Supreme Court to quickly lift the district judge’s block.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued a temporary restraining order last week blocking the Postal Service from enforcing most of the regulation. Congress hasn’t passed any law, she wrote, that “would permit the USPS to regulate election mail. Talwani’s restraining order is scheduled to expire on Sept.
The appeal is the latest phase in a complex and fast-moving fight stemming from a March 31 executive order that President Trump issued on mail voting. 10, and she is considering whether to issue a longer-term block. Because the Postal Service hadn’t yet enacted any of the policies that the executive order directed, last week, the Supreme Court ruled that a challenge to the executive order was premature. Because the Constitution authorizes states to manage elections, with oversight from Congress, she said the rules appear to exceed the agency’s authority.
The matter is also pending before a federal appeals court, but that court hadn’t ruled before the Trump administration filed its latest appeal to the Supreme Court.
