The Supreme Court stops Trump's attempt to restrict mail-in voting in the legislative elections

BarcelonaThe United States Supreme Court has blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections, which allows states to maintain the procedures they have used until now to send and receive ballots. The high court has confirmed two previous orders, from a federal judge in Boston and another in Washington, which temporarily prevented the United States Postal Service from applying new requirements for mail-in ballots.

Conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh has admitted that the new rules should not be applied in this year's elections because there is not enough time to implement the changes, although he has left open the possibility of supporting the restrictions in the future.

Trump justified his March executive order to limit mail-in voting – a third of the total in the US and mostly Democratic – using theories of alleged electoral fraud.

The Administration defended the measures as a way to strengthen the security and integrity of mail-in voting, while its detractors argued that the postal service was overstepping its authority and that the new requirements could hinder the vote of citizens whose ballots did not meet the new conditions.

The rules for requesting, sending, and counting ballots vary between states, and this very diversity of procedures has been one of the points Trump has used to try to modify the rules. The Supreme Court's decision maintains, for the moment, the blockade on Trump's attempts at restriction, but the litigation over the legality of the regulations continues.

Some states have already begun distributing mail-in ballots for the November 3rd elections, in which the 435 seats of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate are at stake.

Trump versus the judges

Trump has reacted with anger against the judges' decision: "The Supreme Court has truly let our country down!", he wrote in a message on Truth Social. "It is a great defeat for the Republicans and for the United States, and it greatly facilitates the radical left, those stupid Democrats, to cheat with mail-in ballots: now they have a free pass to do so", he said, insisting in the message that mail-in voting is a "scam" and a "totally corrupt and out of control" system.

Furthermore, the president has lashed out at the judges he appointed who voted against his proposal, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh. "These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the Supreme Court, they are simply a shadow of what they were", he said. And he added: "This Supreme Court is being bullied and persuaded by the radical left to make decisions that have set the United States back at least a hundred years".

Victory for the Democratic states

The ruling represents a victory for the states led by Democrats. "Today is a good day for democracy, the rule of law, and the American people who seek to exercise their constitutional right to vote," said California Governor Gavin Newsom. "Finally, fifty days later, Americans have certainty regarding our country's electoral process: voting is safe, and mail-in voting is accessible to everyone who needs it," he added.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) association, which represents voting rights organizations in the case, also celebrated the Supreme Court's decision. "The president does not run our elections, the postal service has no right to decide which ballots count, and voters will decide the November elections, not the White House," said Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, in a statement.