Belgium

Brussels, September 16, 2026. The Belgian press first retains a word: "reversal". On Monday evening, the US Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's emergency request to impose new rules on the postal service for mail-in voting, leaving in place the decisions of lower courts in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia that blocked this plan for the November 3 midterm elections. According to DH, four of the six conservative judges on the Court, "including its president, John Roberts", as well as the three progressive judges, rejected the request, estimating that "the government has little chance of winning" on the merits and that it has "not demonstrated the necessity" of suspending the initial decision. La Libre Belgique recalls that this vote now concerns "between one-third and half of American voters" and that the Court, in ruling thus, seeks above all to avoid "confusion, if not chaos" by November 3, without settling the substance of the dispute — which, the newspaper notes, does not dispel "all concerns" about the smooth conduct of the election, "far from it".

La Libre Belgique emphasizes that the majority ruled for practical reasons: it is impossible to apply the requested changes within the deadlines, as states have already begun sending out ballots, and "voters have even already voted". Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, on the other hand, demanded "the immediate application of the reform" despite this risk of confusion.

For DH, the stakes go beyond procedure: "nearly one-third of American voters voted by mail in 2024", according to the organization States United, while "the American right could lose its slim majority in the House, or even in the Senate, to the benefit of the Democrats". The ACLU sees this as "a major victory for the right to vote, the integrity of elections, and democracy".

Donald Trump, for his part, on Tuesday qualified the decision as "horrible" and "highly political", denouncing "these deranged and depraved Democrats" and judges he says are "frozen", unable according to him to "save our America". He sees this as "a heavy defeat for the Republicans and for America". Belgian newspapers are relaying this presidential anger while recalling that the Court has only ruled on the emergency, not on the substance of the case, which could resurface before 2028.