France

Paris, September 16, 2026. The US Supreme Court rejected, on Monday, September 14, 2026, the emergency request from the Trump administration to impose new rules on the postal service for mail-in voting, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. The French press emphasizes the composition of the majority that sealed this setback: four of the six conservative judges on the Court, including its president John Roberts, joined the three progressive judges to reject the request, according to Le Monde, RFI, and France 24. The judges estimate, in a brief decision, that "the government has little chance of winning when the case is tried on the merits" and that it has not demonstrated the need to suspend the lower court's decision. This result, seven votes to nine according to 20 Minutes, is presented as proof that the disagreement goes beyond the usual partisan divide of the high court. Only Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas expressed their dissent; Alito estimating that the postal service "has broad authority to regulate mail" and probably has the power to apply the restrictions, according to France 24. Brett Kavanaugh joined a concurring opinion, while leaving the door open to a return of the case to the Court after the midterms.

The French media are reporting the anger of the American president, who called the decision "horrible" and "highly political" on Truth Social on Tuesday, accusing certain judges of being "intimidated" by the Democrats and unable to "save our America", according to BFMTV. However, Justice Minister Todd Blanche has assured that the executive "will comply with the Supreme Court's decision". The headlines emphasize the practical scope: the 50 states can keep their current procedures, which concerned nearly a third of voters in 2024 according to States United, while the mailing of the first ballots had already begun in some states. The appeal came from California Attorney General Rob Bonta and twenty-two other Democratic states. For the French press, the episode illustrates less an immediate electoral issue than an institutional limit set for the executive: the Court reminds that the rules of the game cannot be changed at the last minute, without settling the merits of the law, which the administration has already announced it wants to reopen before 2028.