Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have joined a large group of lawmakers and former lawmakers in the filing of a legal brief with the Supreme Court in a case challenging the legality of a U.S. Postal Service effort to control the flow of mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Calling it what it is: this is the matter where Donald Trump is trying to stave off the blue wave on Nov. 3 by making it harder for people to vote.
Virginia is one of the states included in the coalition that is challenging Trump and the USPS in front of the handpicked Trump Court, which, good luck there, right?
The suit challenges a final rule issued by the Postal Service pursuant to Trump’s directive that imposes restrictions on mail-in voting, including requiring states to provide a “citizenship verification list” and attempting to give USPS control over who can vote by mail.
A release from the lawmakers notes that nearly one-third of Americans have voted by mail in recent elections — including Trump himself, who voted by mail last month, in a Republican primary in Florida.
From the legal brief:
“As current and former legislators, amici took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States — including its guarantee of the separation of powers. Amici have a particular interest in defending the institutional role of the Legislative Branch under Article I of the Constitution and in vindicating the long-settled principle that the Constitution commits ultimate regulatory authority over federal elections to Congress. The Constitution does not contemplate the Executive Branch acting unilaterally to assert power over federal elections. Yet that is what the Order and Final Rule do.”
The brief pointed to a recent federal court ruling blocking the Postal Service from implementing its newly finalized mail ballot rule for the midterm elections, saying the agency lacked the authority to implement the rule and that its actions are “substantively unconstitutional and contrary to law.”
“The district court correctly concluded that Appellees are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that USPS lacked authority to issue the Final Rule, that the Final Rule unconstitutionally imposes mail-ballot requirements on the States, and that the Final Rule unconstitutionally bars non-compliant State and local election officials from using the USPS to mail ballots at all.”
The lawmakers concluded the brief by asserting the power of states to administer elections and Congress’s power to make or alter rules regulating elections, which the Supreme Court itself has described as an “override” authority.
“The integrity of our constitutional system depends on each branch keeping to its assigned role. The Framers set up a two-part system that gave the States default authority to regulate federal elections subject to Congress’s authority to override the States. The Framers did not provide the President with any authority to interfere in that system, nor has Congress subsequently imbued the President or the Executive Branch with any such authority by statute.”
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Chris Graham
