Supreme Court Backs Trump Election Integrity Order in Mail Ballot Fight

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with President Donald Trump in a mail-in ballot case stemming from his election integrity executive order.

The case is not over, but the high court allowed the federal government to continue implementing the election integrity policies while the case is on appeal.

The justices decided in a 6-3 shadow docket ruling to stay a district court ruling that blocked Trump’s executive order on election integrity and held that the states challenging the order lacked standing.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued to block Trump’s March executive order, which among other things created a list of eligible voters. The executive order required the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists.

The court determined the order imposed no direct burden or obligation on the states that would have given them Article III standing in the litigation.

The 6-3 ruling comes with the midterm elections fast approaching and early voting and mail voting set to begin in several states next month.

The U.S. Postal Service on Friday announced how it would implement the order.

The majority opinion says: “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.”

Lead plaintiff California has some of the most permissive ballot-harvesting rules in the nation. A 2016 law allows a voter to designate “any person” to return the voter’s ballot.

This story has been updated.