President Donald Trump publicly turned on three of his own Supreme Court appointees Tuesday, lashing out at the justices after the high court refused to let his administration enforce new mail-in voting restrictions with the November midterms fast approaching.
In a Truth Social post, the president accused the court of bowing to political pressure, according to The Daily Wire, describing the outcome as “a big loss for Republicans” and arguing that the bench barely resembles the one he set out to shape when he nominated its conservative majority.
A Narrow Loss for the Administration
The ruling at the center of Trump’s fury came Monday night, when the Supreme Court issued a brief unsigned order declining to let the U.S. Postal Service enforce a rule tied to one of the president’s executive orders. That rule would have required states to turn over lists of eligible voters so the Postal Service could verify them before delivering mail-in ballots, and it also imposed strict design requirements on ballot envelopes.
The justices left standing an injunction from a federal judge in Boston, who had already blocked the rule from taking effect. As a result, the November midterms will move forward without the new USPS mail-in voting restrictions, though the wider legal fight over the rule’s future is expected to continue in the lower courts.
The order drew a split on the bench. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, contending that the administration had done enough to justify lifting the lower court’s block and that the challengers in the case lacked sufficient legal standing.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, sided with the majority but wrote separately to explain his thinking. He suggested the Postal Service may ultimately hold the legal authority to issue such a rule, but argued it would be unreasonable to force election officials to put it in place so close to the midterms, given how little time they would have to prepare.
Trump Praises Alito and Thomas, Rips His Other Picks
The president reserved his praise for the two dissenters, calling Alito and Thomas “legends” for backing his administration, while suggesting the rest of the court had failed the country.
He singled out Justices Neil Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom he appointed, criticizing their votes against his policies across multiple rulings, including on tariffs and birthright citizenship.
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves, a Court that is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal,” Trump wrote in the post.
He also accused some justices of being afraid of his political opponents. “Certain Justices are petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats, and are totally unable to show the courage necessary to save our America,” he said.
In the same post, the president renewed his long-running complaints about mail-in balloting, calling it a “totally CORRUPT and out of control” operation and a “Nation Destroying SCAM,” and claiming the United States is the only country that has to endure such a system. He also faulted the court for taking what he characterized as too long to issue its decision.
How the Fight Reached the Supreme Court
The dispute traces back to March, when the president signed an executive order aimed at cracking down on alleged voter fraud connected to mail-in ballots. Two dozen states, mostly led by Democrats and headed by California, sued, arguing the order intruded on states’ constitutional authority to run their own elections.
A federal judge sided with the states, prompting the administration to seek emergency relief. In late August, the Supreme Court briefly allowed the administration to proceed on procedural grounds, but the judge blocked the USPS-specific rules again in early September. That sequence set up the latest showdown, which ended in defeat for the administration.
Trump has treated the composition of the Supreme Court as a central political legacy, having appointed three justices during his first term. His decision to publicly attack Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett marks an unusually direct breach with members of the bench he installed, and it lands at a moment when election administration rules are being litigated in courts across the country.
For now, states will prepare for the midterms under existing mail-in voting procedures, with the postal rule’s fate left to further proceedings below. Whether the administration returns to the Supreme Court for another emergency request remains an open question.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-unloads-on-his-own-scotus-picks-after-mail-ballot-defeat