The US supreme court (SCOTUS) refused to clear the postal service to enforce new restrictions on mail-in ballots for the congressional midterms, in a rebuff to the Trump administration after some states started early voting and opponents warned late-breaking changes would inject chaos into the elections.The justices’ decision Monday came after North Carolina and Alabama began mailing thousands of ballots to voters and many more states prepared to do the same in the coming days. The order followed last-minute legal wrangling and uncertainty about whether states would have to upend months of planning for the Nov 3 midterms, when Republicans are defending their slim majority in Congress.In the brief, unsigned order, the court held that the Trump administration was unlikely to win on the merits of its challenge to the lower court’s injunction and that officials failed to show that they had a stronger case for immediately reviving the rules ahead of the midterms. Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.President Trump denounced the decision, calling it a “horrible, highly political ruling.” He praised Alito and Thomas as “legends” and broadly criticised the high court for also ruling against his global tariffs policy and his plan to restrict birthright citizenship this year. “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,” Trump said.
