Supreme Court Blocks Trump Administration’s USPS Mail Voting Restrictions
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2026
CONTACT
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta - media@advancingjustice-atlanta.org
Asian Law Caucus, media@asianlawcaucus.org
Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, media@movpc.org
SAAJCO, press@saajco.org
Atlanta, GA - Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s request to put new U.S. Postal Service restrictions on voting-by-mail into effect ahead of the November midterm election, leaving a lower court injunction in place while litigation continues.
Asian Law Caucus, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta, Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, South Asian American Justice Collaborative, Common Cause and more than 20 civil rights organizations filed an amicus brief last week, urging the Court to keep the restrictions blocked. The organizations warned that, not only are the new restrictions unlawful, but imposing an untested new federal system just weeks before Election Day would create confusion, interfere with state-run elections, and leave eligible voters without meaningful recourse if mistakes prevented them from receiving or returning their ballots.
The following are reactions from civil rights organizations who filed an amicus brief in USPS v. California:
“You don’t change the rules after the game has started – especially if it means voters will lose. With this ruling, voters won, and the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration yet another loss,” said Aarti Kohli, executive director of Asian Law Caucus. “Millions of people who rely on mail-in ballots – many of whom would otherwise have a difficult time voting – will receive their ballots and be able to confidently return them. We made our opposition clear because no eligible voter should lose their voice because of a bureaucratic mistake they had no power to prevent. Today, that threat is off the table for this election. Americans can move forward with confidence, and we will keep doing everything we can to make sure every eligible voter can cast a ballot and have it counted.”
“Yesterday's decision is a relief for the millions of voters who count on the mail to make their voices heard including naturalized citizens, voters with disabilities, and limited English proficient voters but it should never have come to this,” said Murtaza Khwaja, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. “This administration keeps manufacturing uncertainty and chaos, testing how far it can go to rig the system against voters. The Supreme Court got this right: states run their own elections, not the White House. We will keep fighting alongside our partners to make sure every eligible voter can cast a ballot and trust that it counts.”
“With mail-in voting set to start next week in Missouri amid widespread confusion about voting rules for the November Elections, we are gratified that the Supreme Court recognized the chaos that would ensue if the USPS restrictions were allowed to be implemented,” said Denise Lieberman, director and general counsel of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition. “In Missouri, where the voting rules are being weaponized for political gain, voters deserve to know that the federal government cannot usurp their ballots, and that they will be able to cast a ballot that counts. Voters can now have confidence in their ability to cast ballots by mail in this year’s elections.”
“Voting is one of the clearest expressions of belonging in this country. For South Asian voters, many of whom are naturalized citizens, errors in federal citizenship data and name matching can create very real barriers to the ballot. This decision protects access to mail voting in this election, and we are proud to have joined our civil rights partners in defending full participation in our democracy for our communities and voters across the country,” said Kalpana V. Peddibhotla, executive director of the South Asian American Justice Collaborative (SAAJCO).
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (Advancing Justice-Atlanta) is the first nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) and Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities in Georgia and the Southeast.
