Trump renews Supreme Court request to allow mail

The Trump administration on Sunday appealed for the third time to the US Supreme Court, asking the justices to approve the president’s plan for mail-in ballots under the United States Postal Service (USPS) “Ballot Mail for Federal Elections” rule. In the emergency application, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to allow USPS to refrain from sending mail-in ballots to residents of states that have not submitted a list of eligible voters based on citizenship data, pending the outcome of the administration’s appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and any proceedings in the Supreme Court. In the emergency application, Sauer argued the administration is likely to succeed on the merits in both of the cases. He wrote that the USPS “State election officials will…retain full control over who is permitted to vote in federal elections in their state by US mail. [The new rule] is a valid exercise of [USPS] authority…and simply imposes reasonable preparation requirements for certain election-related mail.” The application also withdrew the petition filed on Thursday. The application is the latest development in a series of cases in response to President Trump’s Executive Order 14399, “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” issued on March 31. One part of the order directs the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Social Security Administration, to compile state lists of individuals confirmed to be US citizens who will be at least 18 and reside in the state. Another part directs USPS to establish requirements for mail-ballot envelopes, including agency approval and unique Intelligent Mail barcodes. USPS subsequently issued its new rule, which took effect August 21 and was published in the Federal Register August 26. The League of Women Voters and a coalition of states, led by California, challenged the legality of the executive order and rule in separate cases. Last Thursday, the administration asked the Supreme Court to stay an August 27 temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The next day, US District Judge Indira Talwani replaced the temporary restraining order with a preliminary injunction barring USPS from enforcing several provisions of the rule. She wrote: “Throughout its body of election legislation, Congress has never delegated its Elections Clause power to the USPS… [T]he Final Rule clashes with Congress’s statutory scheme, and is unconstitutional where it intrudes not only on Congress’s Elections Clause powers but also that power left to the States.” The states challenging the rule then informed the Supreme Court that the preliminary injunction and dissolution of the TRO had rendered the administration’s application moot.