Blanche says admin will comply with mail ballot ruling, defends Trump

United States Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Trump administration would comply with the Supreme Court’s decision blocking new restrictions on mail-in voting, while defending US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the justices.

On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s plan to implement new US Postal Service (USPS) restrictions on mail-in ballots ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, leaving existing voting procedures in place.

“Of course we are going to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision,” Blanche told reporters on Tuesday, a day after the court dismissed the new requirements.

The court’s decision left in place a lower-court order blocking a USPS rule that would have required states to provide voter-specific data and use agency-approved envelopes with barcodes.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed with the decision, saying state and local officials did not have enough time to implement the rule before the midterm election. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Trump lashed out at the court on Tuesday, including the three justices he appointed during his first term, calling the decision among the “most destructive, hurtful, and damaging” in US history.

“This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves.”

Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, helping establish the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.

Blanche defended Trump’s criticism of the court, saying the president should voice concerns about another branch of government in a democracy.

“As far as President Trump’s truth about the justices, he is very frustrated,” Blanche said. “He has every right. And indeed he should communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them.”