The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request by President Donald Trump to allow new restrictions on mail-in ballots to go into effect.
The conservative-majority court declined to overturn an order by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani that blocked the Trump administration’s move to vote by mail.
The decision is seen as a setback to Trump’s efforts to limit mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The U.S. Postal Service implemented the rule after Trump issued an executive order in March that sought to tighten rules for voting by mail.
The new regulation required states to provide voters’ lists to the Post Office and to use ballot envelopes pre-approved by the Post Office.
The postal department was empowered to reject ballots that did not meet the new criteria or did not correspond to persons on the provided list of registered voters.
Judge Indira Talwani had issued an injunction against the regulation, saying that it was likely to violate the US Constitution and that it would not be possible to implement it as the mid-term elections were approaching.
The Trump administration then made an emergency request to the Supreme Court to allow it to implement the policy, which the administration described as an important federal policy to prevent mail-in vote fraud.
In late August, the Supreme Court temporarily allowed Trump to proceed with the executive order, but the court did not rule on the plan’s legality at the time.
In the latest ruling, the court said in an unsigned order that the Trump administration’s chances of succeeding in the case are low.
Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority decision.
Justice Alito held that some of the petitioners lacked standing to file the lawsuit.
Justice Brett Cavanaugh, a Trump appointee, also joined the majority ruling against the administration, but indicated he may support the policy in the future.
Ballots are already being mailed ahead of the midterm elections in Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Trump has long questioned the security of mail-in voting and repeated claims of widespread election fraud that have been dismissed, even though he himself has voted by mail, including in the 2024 election.