California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to intervene in a lower court order blocking Postal Service restrictions on mail voting.
The case was brought by California and 24 other attorneys general plus the Governor of Pennsylvania challenging regulations mandated by President Trump's second elections-related Executive Order. Those regulations would have required states to obtain federal approval for new ballot envelope designs, register voters in a new USPS system, and comply with other requirements that would have allowed USPS to refuse mail ballot delivery.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts first issued a temporary restraining order in September, then granted a preliminary injunction. After the Trump administration appealed and the First Circuit Court rejected its request to pause the injunction, the administration sought relief from the Supreme Court, which declined to intervene.
Bonta noted that all 50 states allow some form of mail voting, with California and several others making it their primary voting method. A whistleblower report documented "potentially catastrophic problems" with the administration's implementation efforts, and the USPS admitted the technology to support the rule was not available. Election officials from non-coalition states, including Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah, also opposed the rule.
The coalition filed the lawsuit on August 26, led by Bonta, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown.