Supreme Court Delivers Major Ruling on Trump’s Mail-Ballot Order

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to let President Donald Trump’s election-integrity executive order take effect before the midterms, lifting an injunction that had blocked it in 23 states.

The order, titled “Preserving and protecting the integrity of American elections,” tells federal agencies to compile citizenship-based lists of eligible voters and directs the Postal Service to deliver mail-in ballots only to people on those lists.

The Court said the order “directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to take appropriate action to create and distribute State Citizenship Lists. This provision is an internal directive from the President to a subordinate. It imposes no obligations on the States, so they ‘suffer no concrete harm from’ it, and without concrete harm, there is no standing.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

The majority stressed that the ruling addresses the injunction, not a final judgment on whether the order is lawful. More lawsuits can still be filed. The Postal Service and Justice Department said they would implement the revised restrictions immediately.

The order cites federal statutes that bar foreign nationals from registering or voting and argues states “fail adequately to vet voters’ citizenship.” It also says the Justice Department in recent years “failed to prioritize and devote sufficient resources for enforcement of these provisions.”

Trump tied the fight to California and the GOP’s Save America Act. “You know, they don’t have voting booths; everything’s by mail. I don’t think a Republican can win in California unless you pass the Save America Act,” he said. “They’re going to have to get rid of mail-in voting.”

For an administration that has treated mass mail balloting as a fraud risk, the stay lift is the practical win: the lists and the postal check can start before November.