Supreme Court hands preliminary win to Trump on mail-in ballots executive order

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with an executive order limiting who can receive mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterms.

Splitting 6-3 along ideological lines, the justices lifted a June injunction from a Massachusetts judge that had blocked the order in California and 22 other states. The order would create a federal list of eligible voters and direct the Postal Service to deliver ballots only to those people.

The ruling is provisional and narrow. The court found that Judge Indira Talwani acted prematurely, before federal agencies had drawn up implementation plans, and stated explicitly that the decision does not make any government measure to carry out the order lawful. Judges may still intervene later.

The three liberal justices dissented. Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision merely postpones deciding whether the president may interfere with state election administration. Ketanji Brown Jackson accused the majority of focusing on a technical argument while the administration sought cover to create chaos before November.

The administration told the court the Postal Service will not refuse to transmit ballots even from senders absent from state voter lists. New York Attorney General Letitia James called the ruling a painful setback that will not be the final word.