The next phase of President Donald Trump’s effort to change America’s mail-in-voting system is taking shape after the Supreme Court issued a largely favorable ruling for the White House in a challenge to Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions. Former White House deputy counsel Gene Hamilton said federal agencies such as the Postal Service can now move forward with parts of Trump’s election-integrity order, including new ballot-mail standards and efforts involving state citizenship lists, as opposing states wait to see which concrete federal actions could form the basis of new lawsuits. "It’s really interesting what the court did [and] it’s actually exactly what you would expect the court to do," Hamilton told Fox News Digital.
TRUMP SCORES SUPREME COURT WIN ON MAIL-IN VOTING RESTRICTIONS BEFORE MIDTERMS Hamilton said that when Trump directed USPS, DHS and DOJ to prepare for the new protocols, several states immediately claimed harm, but the court’s majority rejected their challenge. Originally, a Boston federal judge agreed with them, but the Supreme Court effectively said "you can’t enjoin [the feds] from thinking" — in Hamilton’s words — because no action had taken place yet. JACKSON RIPS INTO SUPREME COURT COLLEAGUES' 'SERIOUS LEGAL ERROR' ON TRUMP MAIL-IN VOTING ORDER "It reminds the American people … just because something might happen in the future [it] doesn't mean that you're actually harmed today, and that's really the crux of what the court did." Hamilton quipped that if the states challenging the order were proven right — and the possibility of future harm were enough to obtain a legal stay — his organization would "have a field day across the country" trying to head off new policies he and his clients oppose.
In that regard, he added that the district judge ultimately overruled by the Supreme Court made an "egregious" misread of Article III powers and essentially said states can dictate which cases the attorney general and DOJ try to prosecute. He emphasized that the legal landscape could change quickly once Trump’s actions get underway, but said states challenging executive action must show a concrete or sufficiently imminent injury rather than rely on predictions about what agencies might eventually do. DHS APPROVES PLAN TO VERIFY VOTER CITIZENSHIP, MONITOR MAIL BALLOTS AS TRUMP PUSH INTENSIFIES Besides USPS, Trump’s order directs DHS to compile and provide states with lists of adult U.S. citizens, while DOJ was told to prioritize investigations and potential prosecutions involving ballots issued to ineligible voters.
"Let’s see what the departments and agencies actually do. Well, let's see what they say they're going to do," Hamilton told Fox News Digital, as new concrete federal rules will come next. USPS WOULDN'T DELIVER BALLOTS IN STATES THAT REFUSE TO FORK OVER MAIL-IN VOTER INFO UNDER PROPOSED RULE The clock is ticking to implement the plan and respond to further legal challenges as states distribute mail ballots progressively earlier than in past decades.
USPS first proposed its ballot-mail rule in June and has since finalized it, requiring standardized ballot envelopes and unique tracking barcodes while directing states to use a federal portal to identify voters receiving mailed federal ballots. States that fail to comply could see outbound federal ballot mail refused or returned. But the agency signaled at the time that it won’t implement the rule for the midterms unless the litigation is resolved.
A separate injunction obtained in litigation by the League of Women Voters currently blocks USPS from implementing the rule. "Why wouldn't you take steps like getting a list of eligible voters, like asking the USPS to use standard mail security measures that they use for other things," Hamilton commented. Asked which provisions of Trump’s order the administration plans to implement following the ruling, when those actions would begin and how states would be directed to comply, the White House did not provide specifics.
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