US President Donald Trump criticized the Supreme Court on social media Tuesday, following the court’s denial of his administration’s emergency petition to allow the US Postal Service (USPS) to heighten mail-in ballot requirements before midterm elections.
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” the president wrote. “It is a Court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our Country’s history.”
The court denied the Justice Department’s petition the previous day, preventing enforcement of the rule during upcoming elections. The rule would have compelled use of pre-approved ballot-envelope designs, specialized voter barcodes, and electronic portals uploaded with voter rosters. The rule followed a March executive order that established a policy to prevent “violations of federal criminal law and maintaining public confidence in election outcomes.”
All three Trump appointees to the court—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—joined the majority in denying the petition. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a brief concurrence to the decision, explaining that while he believed the USPS possessed authority to promulgate the rule, the change came too soon before elections and therefore conflicted with the Administrative Procedures Act.
The denial comes following a string of judicial losses for the Trump administration. In June, the court upheld birthright citizenship, striking down an executive order that attempted to limit citizenship to individuals born in the US to mothers with lawful permanent status or, conversely, mothers with temporary status and fathers with permanent status. In February, the court struck down tariffs imposed by the administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“[The court’s] horrible decision on Tariffs will be costing the U.S.A., for many years to come, Trillions and Trillions of Dollars,” Trump posted. “Likewise, the [court’s] Decision on Birthright Citizenship is a complete and total disaster for America, and has already led to massive corruption with respect to ‘citizenship’ in our Country.”
The Supreme Court generally tries to prevent “tinkering” with election rules before an election. The judicial standard, called the Purcell Principle, aims to avoid confusion and voter disenfranchisement that often occurs when voters and election administrators operate with minimal notice of election changes.
Election research groups have noted a growing partisan divide in mail-in ballot use. According to researchers at MIT’s Election Performance Index, the 2020 election reportedly saw 58 percent of Democrats vote by mail as opposed to 29 percent of Republicans. Republican-approval of mail-in ballot voting has reportedly dropped from 57 percent in 2018 to 34 percent in 2026. During that same time, Democrats approval of mail-in voting has only shifted from 83 percent to 81 percent.
