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Confirmed
In Short: The Supreme Court has blocked President Trump's plan to restrict voting by mail, ruling it is too late to impose new postal service rules for the November election.
The Supreme Court has blocked President Trump's plan to restrict voting by mail, ruling it is too late to impose new postal service rules for the November election. The justices left in place a judge’s order that prevents the U.S. Postal Service from implementing such a system on such a fast timeline.
The Trump administration had argued that the federal government would be seriously harmed by voter fraud if it did not impose the new rules. However, a federal judge had already halted the plan nationwide, finding that the Trump administration had presented no evidence of widespread fraud.
Instead, the states had presented ample evidence that implementing such a system ahead of the midterms would pose tremendous risk. 'Compliance with the USPS’ rule would be impossible ahead of the midterms, meaning that millions of voters would be unable to vote by mail and some would not be able to vote at all,' the state attorneys general told the court last week.
The decision came after the court twice last week ruled against Republicans by declining to revive a new congressional map in Missouri that would have eliminated one of two Democratic-held districts. In both instances, the court said it would not countenance such actions.
Election law experts told NBC News that the court is going to pay very close attention to any extraordinary actions that destabilize the electoral process. 'I think the court is going to pay very close attention to any extraordinary actions that destabilize the electoral process,' said Bob Bauer, who served as White House counsel under President Barack Obama.
The court's decision on the voting by mail issue suggests that the justices will not be receptive to last-minute efforts to change election rules heading into the midterms. 'There’s a signal here that this sort of late intervention is going to receive scrutiny,' Travis Crum, an NBC News contributor and law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said.
The Supreme Court has shown in other cases that the conservative majority follows its own agenda, not Trump’s, and has delivered him major defeats this year on his sweeping tariffs and plan to roll back birthright citizenship. 'But as the Supreme Court has shown in other cases, the conservative majority follows its own agenda, not Trump’s, and has delivered him major defeats this year on his sweeping tariffs and plan to roll back birthright citizenship,' NBC News reported.
The case could return to the Supreme Court as the litigation continues. 'I think there's a fair chance that it winds back up in front of the Supreme Court eventually,' said Josh Gerstein, a contributor to Fox News Digital.
The Missouri Supreme Court faulted Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for delaying a decision on whether the new map could be challenged, ultimately finding him in contempt for defying its ruling in favor of plaintiffs. 'I look forward to my day in court,' Hoskins said in a post on X that cited the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Kweon Seong-dong, a prominent MP in South Korea, was sentenced to two years in prison by a lower court for accepting 100 million won (S$87,000) in illegal political funds in exchange for helping the Unification Church. The Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s guilty verdict, finding that the key evidence in the case was admissible as evidence, and that the defendant had received illegal political funds.
Susan Collins (R‑Maine), one of her joint fundraising committees and a super PAC backing her campaign each bought airtime on a Portland TV station during “Wheel of Fortune.” For each 30-second spot, both Collins’ campaign and her JFC paid $2,200.
What's confirmed
- Galagodaatte Gnanasara served less than a year in prison before being pardoned by Maithripala Sirisena Galagodaatte Gnanasara served less than a year in prison before being pardoned by Maithripala Sirisena Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has overturned a presidential pardon granted to a hardline Buddhist monk and asked him to return to prison.
- The application asked the justices to set aside a 2-1 ruling issued Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which directed the Federal Communications Commission to resolve by Friday a dispute over the agency’s policy to extend the low advertising rates used by political candidates to party coordinated advertising and joint fundraising committees.
- “If you’re a wealthy person who wants to support your preferred candidates to the maximum extent possible, you now have another vehicle through which you can direct very large amounts of money,” said Erin Chlopak, a senior director of campaign finance at the Campaign Legal Center.
What's still developing
- With control of Congress at stake, the court on Monday night blocked Trump’s plan to exert federal control over mail-in ballots via a Postal Service regulation.
- Abhishek Kambil said the lack of a fuller explanation from the court’s majority stood out to him.
- "I think the biggest surprise was the fact that it came with an unreasoned order, especially right after they granted a stay in Missouri, which was also on an unreasoned order. So, in cases like this, where there's a lot at stake, you would hope that in a stay opinion that the Supreme Court would explain its reasoning," Kambil said.
- "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 in his concurring opinion in United States Postal Service, et al.
- The Supreme Court on Monday denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to lift a lower court injunction blocking the U.S.
- On Sept. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a federal district court order in conflict with a Missouri Supreme Court ruling, which ordered that the 2025 map would not be in effect unless it was approved by voters.
- On Sept. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reverse a lower court order blocking the implementation of an executive order President Donald Trump (R) issued in March that would prohibit the delivery of absentee/mail-in ballots to anyone not enrolled by state election officials in a U.S. Postal Service portal.
- The U.S. Department of Justice then appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Supreme Court, arguing the rules fell within the authority Congress has given to USPS.
- Search campaign expenditures to explore how candidates and political groups are spending donor money.
- See who else industries and special interests have supported with political dollars, from attorneys general to public utility commissioners.
- Fox News correspondent Mark Meredith has the latest on the key storylines shaping the race to the 2026 midterm elections, including the political fallout from the Supreme Court's Missouri redistricting decision, the battle for control of Congress, and the issues driving voters as both parties intensify their push toward November on 'Special Report.' The Missouri Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that it was considering holding Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt amid an escalating battle over proposed congressional maps.
- Last week, Missouri's high court ruled that the map backed by President Donald Trump cannot be used because thousands of voters signed a petition demanding a statewide referendum on it.