President Donald Trump launched a missive against the Supreme Court on Tuesday after it blocked his Administration’s plan to implement changes to mail-in voting ahead of the November midterms. In a lengthy post on his social media platform Truth Social, the President took aim at unnamed “Certain Justices” whom he claimed were “petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats,” adding: “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves.” Trump appointed three Justices to the court—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—during his first term. With the court handing Trump a handful of legal victories since, his second-term Administration sought an emergency allowance for restrictions on mailed ballots, arguing that such action is necessary to curb electoral fraud—the President’s past claims of widespread electoral fraud have been repeatedly debunked.
But on Monday, the Supreme Court, in a one-paragraph unsigned order, denied Trump’s bid. The court argued that Trump is likely to lose in court over its push for last-minute changes: Kavanaugh, concurring with the majority, wrote separately that, while the U.S. Postal Service may have authority to implement restrictions, applying them for the 2026 polls “would be arbitrary and capricious” as state and local election officials would lack time to implement them.
The court order has significant implications for the midterms—in which Republicans are seeking to defend their majority in Congress—as nearly 30% of voters nationwide mail in their ballots. He also criticized the litigant states who challenged the restrictions in court ahead of the midterms, writing: “The plaintiff states cannot claim the timing of the rule tilts the equities in their favor when they, and courts hearing their claims, are responsible for so much of the delay.” But the Supreme Court ruling is unlikely to stop Trump from trying to limit mail voting. Later Tuesday, Attorney General Todd Blanche said that while the Administration acknowledged the court’s order and would comply, “President Trump’s efforts to make sure that we have free and fair elections are not going to stop just in November or after or thereafter.” Trump appointed Gorsuch in 2017, Kavanaugh in 2018, and Barrett in 2020.
Since then, they have largely delivered victories for him and his conservative agenda. All three ruled that U.S. states cannot remove Trump from the 2024 election ballot and reversed a Colorado court ruling that attempted to rule him ineligible. They aligned with the court’s conservatives, ruling that former Presidents have some immunity from prosecution for official acts, as Trump faced criminal cases.
They also overturned judicial precedents that protected abortion rights, in line with Trump’s repeated claims that such policies be decided at the state level—and he has taken credit for it. Since his return to the White House last year, they’ve given the President sweeping authority over “independent” regulators. They’ve echoed his crackdown on transgender rights by upholding state laws against trans athletes’ participation in female sports.
They’ve also supported his stringent immigration agenda, including allowing for third-country removals of illegal immigrants. But they have also far from acted as a reliable bloc and have imposed some consequential limits on Trump’s power. In turn, Trump has assailed the court and its Justices.
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