Berk Kutay Gokmen
15 September 2026•Update: 15 September 2026
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed the Supreme Court after it declined to allow the US Postal Service to enforce a rule putting tighter restrictions on mail-in ballots before November’s closely watched midterm elections.
"This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh, all appointed by Trump during his first term, sided against him in the ruling issued Monday.
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” he wrote.
“It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court - it will likely cost me dearly for years to come - but I feel it my obligation and duty.”
The court refused to allow new postal service rules governing federal election ballot mail to take effect ahead of the midterm elections – now about six weeks away, on Nov. 3.
"The Government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the District Court’s preliminary injunction," said the court,
Opponents of the new rules said they would be virtually impossible to enforce at such a late date, as many states have already sent mail-in ballots to voters that requested them. The rules would lead to chaos and confusion among voters, they argued.
The Trump administration says the rules are necessary to fight voter fraud.
The ruling leaves the new mail-in ballot requirements blocked while the underlying legal challenge continues.
Trump intensified his push to reshape US election rules in April, signing an executive order aimed at establishing state voter eligibility lists and directing the postal service to limit mail-in ballots to verified voters.
Trump is not on the ballot for the midterms, but if Democrats make sizeable gains in Congress, as most current polls predict, Trump’s ability to govern in the rest of his term could be significantly hindered.
