The decision means a Postal Service measure that could lead to ballots’ not being sent to voters won’t be in effect for this November’s midterm elections.

Casting a decisive blow against President Donald Trump’s hopes of exercising federal control over the midterm elections, the Supreme Court on Monday prevented a U.S. Postal Service regulation concerning mail-in ballots from going into effect.

The court in a brief order rejected an emergency application the Trump administration filed seeking to block a lower court ruling that said the regulation was most likely unlawful. The court appeared to be divided 7-2, with two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissenting.

A third conservative, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the majority. He wrote that “there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority.” But he found that applying the rule in the November midterms “would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-says-trump-cannot-enforce-new-mail-ballot-regulation-rcna596088