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The US supreme court has sided with Donald Trump in his effort to crack down on mail-in voting, though it remains unclear if his administration can take action ahead of the midterm elections in November.
Justices on the court voted 6-3 along ideological lines to lift an injunction from June that a judge in Massachusetts placed on an executive order issued by the president. But a second injunction remains in place and the ruling leaves room for legal challenges.
Trump has repeatedly likened voting by mail to cheating, despite his own use of it and overwhelming evidence that the system is secure.
In March he ordered the government to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters, requiring that mail-in ballots only be delivered to people on that list. He also directed the justice department to prioritise investigations and prosecutions of state and local election officials who issue ballots to people deemed ineligible to vote in federal elections.
Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued over Trump’s March order, saying the US constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, not the president. They argued that imposing sweeping changes so close to the election risked disenfranchising voters and disrupting preparations already under way.
A judge in Massachusetts, Indira Talwani, sided with the plaintiff states – nearly half the country – and ruled that Trump lacked authority to dictate how states administer federal elections. She also questioned whether federal agencies could compile accurate citizenship lists.
An appeals court upheld her decision. Talwani later issued a second injunction with nationwide effect.
The justice department had argued that the states’ lawsuit was premature because the administration had not yet taken concrete actions that harmed them and they therefore lacked legal standing to sue. The administration said the Massachusetts injunction prevented it from finalising and implementing policies intended to promote “election integrity” before November.
Republican-led states backed the administration before the supreme court, arguing that states would have an opportunity to provide input on the final lists of eligible voters.
The supreme court, in a 6-3 decision, has now lifted the first injunction, allowing the administration to move forward while litigation continues. The three liberal justices dissented. The ruling does not finally resolve the underlying legal questions and leaves the door open to further challenges as the midterms approach.
The wrangling over how US voters can cast their ballots comes less than 100 days until November’s midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power in the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Democratic voters are deemed more likely to cast their ballots by mail than Republicans: about one in four registered Democrats did so in 2024, according to the States United Democracy Center, alongside one in five registered Republicans.
About 30% of all ballots were cast by mail in the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found roughly four cases of fraud for every 10m mail ballots cast.
Trump’s executive order forms part of a wider effort to reshape the electoral system. He has repeatedly made false claims of widespread fraud in American elections, including his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, and has pressed the Republican-controlled Congress to pass the Save America Act, a contentious package of voting restrictions.
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