{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/press-releases/duckworth-durbin-join-senate-democrats-in-urging-supreme-court-to-block-postal-rule-limiting-mail-in-voting", "Duckworth, Durbin Join Senate Democrats in Urging Supreme Court to Block Postal Rule Limiting Mail-In Voting", "2026-09-11", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "IL", "Tammy Duckworth", "D000622", "www.duckworth.senate.gov", "duckworth", "https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "261 Members and former Members file bicameral, bipartisan brief as court order barring Postal Service rule limiting mail voting is being challenged by Trump\u2019s DOJ\n\n[WASHINGTON, D.C.] \u2014 U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and joined U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Gary Peters (D-MI), along with U.S. Representatives Joe Morelle (D-NY-25), Robert Garcia (D-CA-42), Joe Neguse (D-CO-02) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), in leading a bicameral amicus brief challenging the legality of President Trump\u2019s executive order and U.S. Postal Service rule seeking to exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.\n\nThe group, made up of a bipartisan, bicameral coalition of 261 lawmakers and former lawmakers, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the matter of State of California, et al. v. United States Postal Service, et al., a lawsuit brought by a coalition of state attorneys general against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The court case challenges a final rule issued by USPS pursuant to President Trump\u2019s directive that imposes unconstitutional and unworkable restrictions on mail-in voting, including requiring states to provide a \u201ccitizenship verification list\u201d and attempting to give USPS control over who can vote by mail.\n\n\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s desperate attempts to obstruct voting by mail for every American but himself are unconstitutional and jeopardize our democracy,\u201d said Duckworth. \u201cTrump has already voted by mail twice this year alone. We cannot allow him to illegally intimidate his fellow tens of millions of Americans who cast their ballots by mail. As we approach the 2026 midterms, the Supreme Court must reject these unlawful executive orders and protect Americans\u2019 right to vote this fall.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe President is dead set on attacking Americans\u2019 right to vote and undermining our democracy by making baseless claims about \u2018rigged\u2019 elections, demanding unreasonable voter registration requirements, restricting mail-in voting, and threatening to unconstitutionally nationalize our elections. But the President cannot nullify our Constitution. The Supreme Court must reject the President\u2019s attempts to chip away at our voting rights,\u201d Durbin said.\n\nNearly one-third of Americans have voted by mail in recent elections\u2014a voting practice Trump himself used as recently as August 2026, when he voted in Florida\u2019s Republican primary.\n\nIn the court filing, the amici curiae argue that President Trump\u2019s Executive Order 4399 and USPS\u2019s final rule violate the separation of powers and usurp congressional authorities outlined in Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the states and Congress exclusive authority over election administration.\n\n\u201cAs current and former legislators, amici took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States \u2014 including its guarantee of the separation of powers,\u201d wrote the lawmakers in the brief. \u201cAmici have a particular interest in defending the institutional role of the Legislative Branch under Article I of the Constitution and in vindicating the long-settled principle that the Constitution commits ultimate regulatory authority over federal elections to Congress. The Constitution does not contemplate the Executive Branch acting unilaterally to assert power over federal elections. Yet that is what the Order and Final Rule do.\u201d\n\nThe amici also pointed to a recent federal court ruling blocking USPS from implementing its newly finalized mail ballot rule for the midterm elections, saying the agency lacked the authority to implement the rule and that its actions are \u201csubstantively unconstitutional and contrary to law.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe district court correctly concluded that Appellees are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that USPS lacked authority to issue the Final Rule, that the Final Rule unconstitutionally imposes mail-ballot requirements on the States, and that the Final Rule unconstitutionally bars non-compliant State and local election officials from using the USPS to mail ballots at all,\u201d wrote the lawmakers.\n\nThe lawmakers concluded by asserting states\u2019 power to administer elections and Congress\u2019s power to make or alter rules regulating elections, which the Supreme Court itself has described as an \u201coverride\u201d authority. President Trump\u2019s illegal incursion on this authority is an attempt to disenfranchise people who depend on mail-in ballots to vote.\n\n\u201cThe integrity of our constitutional system depends on each branch keeping to its assigned role,\u201d concluded the lawmakers. \u201cThe Framers set up a two-part system that gave the States default authority to regulate federal elections subject to Congress\u2019s authority to override the States. The Framers did not provide the President with any authority to interfere in that system, nor has Congress subsequently imbued the President or the Executive Branch with any such authority by statute.\u201d\n\nIn addition to Duckworth, Durbin, Padilla, Schumer, and Peters, the amicus brief was joined by the entire Senate Democratic Caucus.\n\nThe full brief is available on the Senator\u2019s website.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-09-12T09:02:30Z", "2026-09-12T09:03:27Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/press-releases/duckworth-durbin-join-senate-democrats-in-urging-supreme-court-to-block-postal-rule-limiting-mail-in-voting"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4330639969557524, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}