Washington: The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to give President Donald Trump the green light to proceed with his plan to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections, marking another setback for the administration. Only two of the court’s six conservative justices dissented.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a dissenting opinion, argued that the dispute was not necessarily about the long-term legality of the plan, but rather the limited time remaining before the election. In March, Trump signed an executive order aimed at tightening the requirements for mail-in voting, claiming that this method is susceptible to fraud, which led to a series of legal challenges.

Democratic-led states filed lawsuits against the administration, arguing that the Constitution grants states, not the federal government, broad authority in administering elections. The executive order stipulated the creation of voter registration lists and that the US Postal Service would deliver ballots only to those on those lists.

Officials in several states warned that the legal ambiguity surrounding the plan is causing administrative chaos months before the November 3 election. Several states, including North Carolina, have already begun mailing ballots to voters. Meanwhile, a whistleblower with the U.S. Postal Service warned that millions of Americans may not receive their ballots due to systems he described as “hastily and poorly constructed.”

Trump is a vocal critic of mail-in voting, despite having used it on several occasions, most recently voting last month in the Republican primary in Florida. He has for years claimed that mail-in voting facilitates fraud, linking it to his repeated assertion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

Polls indicate that the Republican Party faces a serious risk of losing its majority in Congress, particularly in the House of Representatives. Conversely, Democrats assert that if they regain control of Congress, they will work to obstruct Trump’s legislative goals and may even open the door to a new impeachment attempt.