261 Current and Former Members of Congress File Bicameral, Bipartisan Brief as Court Order Barring Postal Service Rule Limiting Mail Voting is Being Challenged by Trump’s DOJ

Washington, D.C. – 9/9/26 – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined a bicameral amicus brief led by Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) challenging the legality of President Trump’s Executive Order and U.S. Postal Service (USPS) rule seeking to exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The 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 against USPS, led by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford alongside the California, Washington, and Massachusetts Attorneys General. The court case challenges a final rule issued by the USPS pursuant to Trump’s directive that imposes unconstitutional restrictions on mail-in voting.

Nevada has proudly expanded access to mail-in ballots so every voter can vote in a safe and secure manner that works best for them. Nearly one-third of Americans have voted by mail in recent elections — a voting practice Trump himself used as recently as August 2026, when he voted in Florida’s Republican primary. In the court filing, the amici curiae argue that Trump’s Executive Order 4399 and USPS’s 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.

“As current and former legislators, amici took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States — including its guarantee of the separation of powers,” wrote the lawmakers. “Amici 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.”

The amici also pointed to a recent federal court ruling blocking the 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 “substantively unconstitutional and contrary to law.”

“The 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,” continued the lawmakers.

The lawmakers concluded by asserting States’ power to administer elections and Congress’s power to make or alter rules regulating elections, which the Supreme Court itself has described as an “override” authority. Trump’s illegal incursion on this authority is an attempt to disenfranchise people who depend on mail-in ballots to vote.

“The integrity of our constitutional system depends on each branch keeping to its assigned role,” concluded the lawmakers. “The Framers set up a two-part system that gave the States default authority to regulate federal elections subject to Congress’s 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.”

In addition to Cortez Masto, Padilla, and Schumer, the amicus brief was joined by the entire Senate Democratic Caucus.

The full text of the brief can be found here.

Senator Cortez Masto has consistently stood up to President Trump’s illegal attempts to take away Americans’ voting rights. She has joined legislation to block the executive order challenged in this amicus brief and has urged USPS to abandon its proposed rule to implement the executive order. Cortez Masto helped Democrats defeat the SAVE America Act and called attention to the impact it and other so-called “election integrity” measures by the Trump Administration would have on voting access for Tribal communities. She has introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure that mail is processed locally, ensuring the timely delivery of mail ballots.