Trump doesn’t have the power to limit mail-in voting, lawmakers tell US Supreme Court

More than 250 current and former members of Congress filed a brief telling the Supreme Court that a Trump-directed Postal Service rule restricting mail ballots exceeds both congressional and executive authority, since the Constitution assigns election administration to states and Congress, not the president. The rule requires barcodes on ballot envelopes and citizenship verification through a portal that, with under two months to Election Day, hasn't been rolled out to states.

The administration calls the rule a modest technical mail specification; the lawmakers and a legal advocacy group counter that it originated in a Trump executive order premised on unproven mail-fraud claims and functions as election regulation Congress never authorized. A Massachusetts judge already paused the rule as likely unconstitutional, and the administration is now asking the Supreme Court to lift that pause with Election Day approaching.

A whistleblower reported the rushed verification tool has bugs that could reject legitimate ballots, and more than 20 Democratic state officials and voting rights groups are separately suing over the rule.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.