Trump Asks Supreme Court To Protect States From Governing Themselves
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to defend states’ rights by allowing the federal government to dictate how states distribute mail ballots. The emergency appeal seeks to revive provisions of President Donald Trump’s March executive order creating a federal “state citizenship list” and directing the Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters approved by Washington. A lower court blocked the rules in 23 states after applying the obsolete definition of federalism in which states retain authority over state matters.
Trump described the appeal as a necessary safeguard against local control. “Nobody respects state authority more than I do, and every state has an absolute constitutional right to run its elections exactly the way I personally order from Washington,” Trump said. Administration lawyers warned that allowing states to determine voter eligibility under their own laws could produce a dangerous patchwork in which the nation’s 50 states behave as though they are 50 separate states, each with its own legislature, statutes and apparently unlicensed opinions.
The order would also protect voters from the administrative burden of receiving ballots they lawfully requested. Under the administration’s freedom-enhancing system, citizens could instead experience the patriotic suspense of waiting to learn whether a federal database recognizes their existence before the Postal Service recognizes their address. Officials said this uncertainty would increase confidence by preventing voters from becoming overconfident that casting a valid ballot will result in that ballot being counted.
The Supreme Court complicated the administration’s liberation campaign in June by allowing states to count ballots postmarked by Election Day even when postal delays caused them to arrive later. Trump officials now want the justices to restore electoral certainty before the midterms by ensuring no voter can be certain a ballot will arrive, qualify or survive federal inspection. The case could establish a durable new meaning of states’ rights: every state possesses the sovereign authority to surrender its sovereignty whenever the president finds local democracy inconvenient.
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