President Donald Trump attacked the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a day after justices rejected his administration’s bid to revive stricter mail-in ballot rules ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The Court’s unsigned Monday order left in place a nationwide injunction blocking new U.S. Postal Service requirements for handling federal ballot mail. Trump responded on social media, calling the outcome “another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court” and describing mail-in voting itself as a “totally CORRUPT and out of control” system that he said is “a laughing stock all over the World.”
“Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the Court System took forever to give, and then blamed it, in part, on no time left to implement a solution to our totally CORRUPT and out of control Mail-In voting ‘disaster,’ which is a laughing stock all over the World, and where we are the only country that has to endure such a Nation Destroying SCAM,” Trump wrote.
He praised Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who dissented from the order, calling them “legends.” Trump argued the ruling would benefit Democrats in future elections.
“It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the Radical Left ‘Dumocrats,’ on Mail-In Ballots, a much easier thing to do – And now they have an open field to do so!”
The president also pointed to other recent Supreme Court decisions that have gone against him, including rulings striking down his tariff policies and voiding his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
“It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court – it will likely cost me dearly for years to come – but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!” he wrote.
What the Rules Would Have Required
Monday’s order rejected the administration’s request for a stay on an injunction against new Postal Service rules for mail-in ballots. Those rules would have required federal ballot envelopes to carry an official election-mail logo, be scannable by high-speed equipment, and include a barcode unique to each voter.
State and local election officials would also have had to submit envelope designs to USPS for review and upload basic voter information through an online portal. Any mailings that failed to meet the standards would have been returned to election officials rather than accepted for delivery.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing a concurring opinion, left open the possibility that the rules could eventually be upheld on the merits. “In my view, based on the briefing the Court has received at this interim stage, there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority,” Kavanaugh wrote. But he said it was too late to put the rules into effect for the 2026 elections, adding that doing so “would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”
Add comment