EXCLUSIVE: Trump Accused of 'Unconstitutional' Election Power Grab as Members of Congress Beg Supreme Court to Block New Mail-Ballot Crackdown
President Donald Trump is facing a Supreme Court battle over his administration’s controversial new mail-ballot rules.
Sept. 8 2026, Published 7:45 p.m. ET
President Trump has been accused of staging an "unconstitutional" election power grab as a bipartisan group of current and former members of Congress has urged the Supreme Court to block his administration's controversial new mail-ballot rules, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Lawmakers have filed a blistering brief with the nation's highest court attacking Trump's March 31 executive order, Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections, and a subsequent United States Postal Service rule governing ballot mail.
Bipartisan Revolt
President Trump's election order is being challenged by current and former members of Congress from both parties.
According to court documents obtained by Radar, the lawmakers claim the measures "unconstitutionally and unlawfully usurp" authority over federal elections that the Constitution gives to states and Congress – not the executive branch.
The group includes current and former members of both the Democratic and Republican parties and is asking the Supreme Court to deny the Trump administration's request for emergency relief.
At the heart of the explosive dispute is an August 26 USPS rule that opponents claim could dramatically reshape how mail ballots are handled.
USPS Ballot Power
The White House is facing claims the new rules give the Postal Service powers Congress never authorized.
The lawmakers allege the new system would put USPS in charge of lists identifying voters enrolled to vote by mail and could give postal officials the ability to reject and return ballots tied to people who do not appear on those lists – even when those voters are legally eligible and registered.
They argue Congress never granted USPS such sweeping power.
The filing claims the administration's election directives collide with both the Constitution's Elections Clause and Postal Clause and accuses the executive branch of venturing into territory historically controlled by Congress and the states.
The lawmakers also contend that federal law gives states responsibility for maintaining voter-registration databases and does not authorize USPS to demand voter-eligibility lists as a condition for sending mail ballots.
200 Years of Precedent
Trump's mail-ballot crackdown has sparked a fight over presidential power dating back more than two centuries.
They further claim the controversial rule prevents USPS from transmitting ballots to voters unless a state has first enrolled those voters with the postal service. In one of the filing's most dramatic arguments, the lawmakers invoke more than two centuries of American history.
They claim that for over 200 years, federal election regulations have originated with Congress and that no president has ever acted unilaterally to regulate the manner in which federal elections are conducted.
The brief reaches back to the Founding Fathers, arguing America's constitutional structure deliberately kept presidents away from direct election administration after the colonists' experience with King George III.
Supreme Court Showdown
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Trump's election battle has landed before the Supreme Court as lawmakers push to keep the USPS rule blocked.
The lawmakers wrote that the Framers had fought a revolution against executive manipulation of representative government and would not have handed similar authority to a president acting alone.
The legal war now leaves the Supreme Court confronting a major separation-of-powers battle over who ultimately gets to control the rules surrounding federal mail voting.
The lawmakers insist the answer is clear: states and Congress – not Trump.
They are urging the justices to leave the lower court's injunction against mandatory implementation of the USPS rule intact and deny the administration's emergency request.
