The Supreme Court has struck down tighter mail-in voting regulations championed by President Trump ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. CBS News' legal contributor Jessica Levinson breaks it down.
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Trump calls the mail-ballot ruling, which his attorney general says 'of course' they'll obey, a path to cheating.
“They lost this in August, lost it again this month at the appeals court, then lost it a second time at the Supreme Court — and the guy acting surprised is the same guy who asked the Court twice to save it. "Of course we'll comply" is what you say after the judge already changed the locks, and four fraud cases out of ten million ballots is the receipt that tells you this was never about cheating. It's about who gets to decide whose ballot counts, and that bill always comes due at somebody else's mailbox, not theirs.”
“Of course we'll comply, that's just the rule of law, that's not a talking point, that's how the system is supposed to — we asked the Court to lift the block, they said no, we asked again, they said no again, which, okay, does sound like we lost twice, I didn't write it that way. Four fraud cases out of ten million ballots is basically a rounding error, so calling it a path to cheating is — actually forget I said "path to cheating," that's not mine, that's a different guy.”
The receipts
Attorney General Todd Blanche told CBS News' Ed O'Keefe on Tuesday "of course" the White House will comply with a Supreme Court decision that keeps in place a lower court ruling that blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing new regulations for mail voting.
Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted the White House press briefing on Tuesday, commenting on the Supreme Court's ruling that blocks President Trump's new postal service rules for mail ballots. CBS News' Ed O'Keefe has more.
The mail system took on new prominence during the Civil War by enabling soldiers to vote from afar. On Monday, the Supreme Court blocked President Trump’s effort to give it a new role in elections.
The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the Postal Service from enforcing new mail voting rules ahead of the midterm elections.
President Trump called the Supreme Court's refusal to enforce stricter mail-in voting rules a "big loss" for Republicans and Americans on Tuesday, claiming it will lead to cheating. A Brookings Institute analysis found just four cases of mail voter fraud for every 10 million ballots cast in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022. CBS News' Aaron…
· Appeals Court Rejects 'Likely Unlawful' Trump Push to Undermine Mail-In Voting as Supreme Court Looms from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Trump asks Supreme Court to lift block on USPS mail ballot rule from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Trump's Contested Order to Restrict Mail-In Voting Could Disenfranchise Millions: Ari Berman from the morgue, 26 Aug 2026
· Trump's War on Mail-in Voting is Hitting a Brick Wall—But the Danger is Far From Over from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.