The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a lower court order that is preventing the federal government from moving forward with plans to create state-by-state lists of citizens eligible to vote by mail.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency appeal on Monday, arguing that lower courts stepped in too early by blocking the administration’s directive before federal agencies had finalised how it would be implemented.
In March, President Donald Trump directed the US Postal Service to work with states to produce a register of citizens eligible to receive mail-in ballots.
He also instructed the Department of Homeland Security to “compile and transmit state-specific lists of individuals who are citizens and will be 18 years of age or older at the time of an upcoming election,” Sauer said.
The move was challenged by California and 22 other Democratic-led states, which argued that the US Constitution gives states, not the federal government, the authority to regulate elections and voting procedures.
A federal judge in Boston sided with the states in June, temporarily blocking the order from taking effect in the 23 states involved in the lawsuit. The ruling was later upheld by the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Rather than arguing whether the president has the constitutional authority to introduce nationwide election rules, Sauer’s appeal focused on the timing of the court’s intervention.
He said neither the Postal Service nor the Department of Homeland Security had issued final policies to implement Trump’s directive.
“Courts cannot enjoin implementation of Executive Orders that leave open material issues that still need to be resolved by agencies,” he wrote.
He urged the Supreme Court to lift what he described as “premature injunctions.”
Sauer also warned that time was running out before the November elections.
“Absent a stay … there will not be sufficient time to obtain appellate relief before the November election,” Sauer said. “That is especially true because implementation efforts for any USPS rule or DHS policy will need to begin well before November … particularly given that absentee and mail-in voting begin (in some States) several weeks prior to Election Day.”
The Supreme Court has directed the 23 Democratic-led states challenging the order to submit their response by August 3
