NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke urges the Supreme Court to leave the USPS ballot-mail block in place
NAACPGeneral Counsel of the NAACP, in an NAACP press release on a court order in a case brought by the NAACP and others
NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke said two district courts and a federal circuit court had blocked what she called an unlawful attempt to use the Postal Service to hijack mail voting during the midterm election. She urged the Supreme Court to reject the administration's request to let the rule proceed.
“Two district courts and a federal circuit court have now blocked this administration's unlawful attempt to weaponize the U.S. Postal Service to hijack our mail voting system in the middle of an ongoing midterm election. The election is just 49 days away. We urge the Supreme Court to reject this administration's request to green light this unlawful scheme and leave in place our mailing voting system which is safe, secure, and orderly.”
Official statement
Original text
Where this statement fits
Should Trump’s new mail-in voting restrictions apply to the 2026 midterms?
USPS’s new federal ballot-mail rule requires election officials to meet envelope standards, enroll voters through a federal portal and submit outgoing ballots for verification. The Trump administration argues these are lawful anti-fraud postal controls. Challenging states and civil-rights organizations say USPS is intruding into state-run elections and that the late rollout threatens voters’ access. On September 14, the Supreme Court left a temporary block in place for the 2026 election. Alito and Thomas would have allowed enforcement; Kavanaugh objected to applying the rule this year.
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
NAACP press statement on the preliminary injunction that a federal court in Washington issued against the Postal Service ballot-mail rule. It quotes Clarke and Damon Hewitt of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Original text
About this source
The Court denies a stay of the preliminary injunction. Kavanaugh objects to applying the rule in 2026; Alito would grant the stay and Thomas joins him. This is emergency relief, not final disposition of every challenge to the executive order.
Before the quotation
The release said the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had granted a renewed motion for a preliminary injunction against the Postal Service rule, and named the NAACP, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Black Voters Matter as the groups behind it. It described the rule as requiring absentee and mail-in ballots for federal elections to be sent only to voters verified through a new Federal Ballot Mail Portal.
After the quotation
On the same day, the Supreme Court denied the government's application to stay a separate preliminary injunction against the rule in United States Postal Service v. California. The release also quoted Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is implementing and enforcing the mandatory USPS ballot-mail requirements for elections on or before November 3, 2026. Clarke called the administration's effort unlawful and urged the Supreme Court to leave the block on the rule in place for this election. That expressly rejects enforcing the rule this year, so we labeled it Condemned.
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- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Donald Trump, United States Postal Service
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The Dispute Index. "NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke urges the Supreme Court to leave the USPS ballot-mail block in place". First published: 2026-09-26. Last updated: 2026-09-26. https://disputeindex.com/events/2784-naacp-general-counsel-kristen-clarke-said-two-district