Trump administration presses Supreme Court again on mail ballot rule after new court loss

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to quickly block two lower court rulings that have halted a Postal Service plan to impose new nationwide limits on mail voting ahead of the November midterms. Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer told the court that further delay would "run out the clock" on implementing the changes before the election.

The filing came after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a second ruling on Tuesday, this time siding with the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups to block the plan nationwide. Talwani had already ruled in June, in a separate case brought by California and 22 other states, that the rule changes came too late in the election cycle to implement without disrupting voters; an appellate court upheld that decision in July.

The dispute stems from a March executive order in which President Trump directed the Postal Service and Department of Homeland Security to compile state-by-state lists of voters eligible for citizenship verification, then restrict mail ballot delivery to those on the lists. Sauer argued the challenges are premature because the agencies have not yet taken concrete action, while California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and voting rights groups have called the order an illegal attempt to seize control of state election administration.

The Supreme Court has not indicated when it will rule, though the emergency nature of the filing calls for a prompt response.

Read the full story at Los Angeles Times.