US mail-in voting fight

Where things stand

The dispute over the Trump administration's mail-in voting decree has moved to the US Supreme Court. After a federal appeals court upheld an injunction blocking the order in 23 states, on the grounds that the president lacked authority to change state election rules, the administration asked the justices to let the new restrictions take effect, according to Al Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal and El País. That follows the appeals court's refusal on Saturday, reported by Folha de S.Paulo, to put the decree into force while the case proceeds. For now the states continue to run their existing ballot procedures, and the decree remains inoperative unless the Supreme Court intervenes. Alongside the court filing, Trump has opened a legislative track: Breitbart reports that on Monday he urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune to keep the Senate in session and to end the filibuster so the SAVE America Act could pass. The available reporting does not indicate how Thune responded, nor when the Supreme Court might act on the administration's request. Whether the justices will rule only on allowing the restrictions to take effect during the litigation or address the underlying question of presidential authority is also not stated in the sources.

The dispute concerns a decree by the Trump administration that would tighten the rules governing voting by mail, applied to 23 states according to Folha de S.Paulo's account. In the United States, the conduct of elections and the conditions for postal ballots are set largely by the individual states, so a federal measure of this kind would displace the rules those states already apply. The administration went to a federal appeals court seeking to have the decree implemented, and the court declined the request. The available reporting does not describe who challenged the decree, what legal arguments were made, or the procedural posture of the case beyond that refusal.