The president questioned justices he himself nominated after the Supreme Court kept new USPS rules for the November elections blocked.

President Donald Trump launched a harsh critique of the Supreme Court, including the conservative majority he helped build, after losing another judicial battle over the elections.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court; they are just a shadow of what they used to be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

  • Why it matters: the Supreme Court mail-in ballot ruling keeps blocked for the November 3 elections rules that would have changed how states send out millions of mail-in ballots.

Supreme Court Blocks New Mail-in Voting Rules

The Supreme Court rejected on Monday an emergency request from the government to lift a court order preventing the new USPS regulations from taking effect.

The nation’s highest court indicated that the government would likely not succeed in its appeal of the preliminary order and that it also failed to meet the requirements for an emergency stay.

The rules required election envelopes to have specific features, automated processing capabilities, and a unique barcode associated with each voter.

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States would also have to upload basic voter information to a USPS portal. Mailings that did not meet the requirements could be returned.

What’s changing: these new conditions will not be applied during the 2026 midterm elections while the litigation continues.

  • The fact: some states have already begun processes related to mail-in voting, increasing the potential impact of any last-minute changes.

Trump Targets Conservative-Majority Supreme Court

Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett during his first term, cementing a conservative majority of six justices to three liberals.

However, Monday’s order did not individually identify all the justices who supported the Supreme Court mail-in ballot ruling. Samuel Alito issued a dissent joined by Clarence Thomas.

Kavanaugh published a separate concurring opinion: he considered that the regulation could have legal backing but concluded that applying it now would be inappropriate because election officials do not have enough time to implement it.

Trump, in contrast, praised Alito and Thomas and called the outcome a “horrible and extremely political decision”.

  • The dispute: Trump argues that tightening mail-in voting rules would help combat fraud; the restrictions have faced lawsuits from states and voting rights organizations.

Trump’s Clashes With His Own Supreme Court Nominees Continue

The reaction is not the first public confrontation between the president and justices he himself appointed to the nation’s highest court.

Trump had already criticized Gorsuch and Barrett in particular after another ruling against his administration on tariffs.

Now, he again connected those decisions to mail-in voting and argued that the Court has issued rulings harmful to the country.

The current decision, however, has an immediate electoral consequence: the USPS will have to continue processing ballots without applying the new restrictions during the November elections.

  • What’s next: the decision responds to an emergency request and keeps the regulation blocked while the judicial dispute continues; it does not necessarily prevent similar rules from being considered again for future elections.

Sources: Reuters, CNN.