SACRAMENTO, September 18 — Governor Gavin Newsom claimed victory this week after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a Trump Administration U.S. Postal Service rule that would have restricted access to voting by mail, handing California and its fellow mail-voting states a decisive win with the November midterm elections now fifty days out. The ruling, announced September 14, followed through on a promise Newsom made earlier in the summer to take legal action against the rule, which he called dangerous and harmful.
In his statement, the governor framed the outcome in the broadest terms available to him. The decision, he said, was a win for democracy, the rule of law, and the American people.
With fifty days remaining before voters head to the polls, he added, voting is safe and vote-by-mail is accessible to all who need it.
A Record of Losses for the Administration
California Attorney General Rob Bonta put the ruling in its litigation context. The Trump Administration, he noted, had lost in district court and again on appeal before losing at the Supreme Court — a clean sweep against the rule at every level of the federal judiciary. Bonta warned that had the rule taken effect, the consequences would have been catastrophic.
All fifty states permit some form of mail voting, he said, and mail voting is the primary method of casting a ballot in California and several other states. The record behind the rule was no stronger than its legal footing.
A whistleblower report described the administration’s efforts as sloppy and rushed, with potentially catastrophic problems. In a court filing, USPS itself admitted the technology needed to implement the rule was not available. Election officials from both parties — including chief election officials in Republican-led states — argued the rule could not be responsibly implemented in time for the November midterms.
That bipartisan opposition mattered. It stripped the administration of the argument that this was a partisan dispute over election administration and recast it as a straightforward question of operational competence.
Weber: Uncertainty Removed
California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., said the ruling removes uncertainty and ensures voters can cast ballots without fear of rejection. The ability to participate, she said, is a symbol of American democracy.
The decision builds on Newsom’s record of defending democracy. Earlier, he signed Senate Bill 73, which prohibits unauthorized access to voter rolls and voting technology by law enforcement — including federal agents — without a court order.
The bill also restricts peace officers from interfering with election administration except in urgent public safety emergencies, and requires the California Department of Justice to issue guidance to county election officials on responding to law enforcement requests for access to ballot areas. Strategically, the calculus here extends well beyond California’s borders.
Mail voting is the primary method in several states, and the administration’s attempt to restrict it through the Postal Service — rather than through Congress — was a test of how far executive agencies can reach into the mechanics of American elections. The Supreme Court has now answered that question against the administration, and it did so on a record that included the agency’s own admission that it lacked the technology to carry out its own rule.
What this signals for the midterms is narrower but consequential. With fifty days to go, the legal uncertainty that hung over mail balloting has been cleared, and officials in both parties who warned the rule was unworkable have been vindicated. Watch whether the administration attempts another route to the same end before November, and whether the bipartisan coalition of state election officials that helped sink this rule holds together if it does.
