The US supreme court has sided with Donald Trump in his effort to crack down on mail-in voting, though it is unclear whether or not his administration will be able to take action before the midterm elections in November. The court’s justices voted 6-3 along ideological lines to lift an injunction that a judge in Massachusetts had placed in June on an executive order issued by the president. But a second injunction remains in place, and the ruling leaves room for legal challenges.
Trump has repeatedly likened voting by mail to cheating, despite his own use of it and overwhelming evidence that the system is secure. In March he ordered the government to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters, requiring that mail-in ballots only be delivered to people on that list. He also directed the justice department to prioritise investigations and prosecutions of state and local election officials who issue ballots to people deemed ineligible to vote in federal elections.
What did the dissenting judges say? In a blistering dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the decision “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections”. How have rights organisations reacted?
The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Derrick Johnson, said: “Let this ruling be a reminder that democracy is never, ever guaranteed. We have to fight for it, we have to fight to keep it and we have to protect the rights we do have within it … they are trying to do everything they possibly can to make it difficult for you to vote.” Donald Trump has announced a new 50% tariff on automobiles and crucial raw materials from Canada, the latest deterioration in trade relations between the two neighbours with traditionally strong economic ties. The US president said Canada had been “ripping off” the US for years and that they were “among the worst Nations in the World to deal with”.
The country’s prime minister, Mark Carney, told reporters that Trump’s announcement was largely expected. Carney has vowed to match the American tariffs “dollar for dollar”, and said Canada could not accept any proposed trade deal that would weaken French language protections. The US military has struck a vessel in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of drug trafficking.
US Southern Command (SouthCom) said it had “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific”. SouthCom did not provide evidence of the vessel’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking. Monday’s strike marks the latest in a series since the Trump administration launched what it described as a campaign targeting “narco-terrorists” smuggling drugs into the US.
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