SCOTUS Blocks Trump Mail Voting Rules Before Midterms

The Supreme Court just said no. This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. When election rules are contested weeks before ballots are counted, where does a Christian place his trust? Here's what we know. Last night the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request to enforce new mail-in voting restrictions for this year's midterms. The plan came through an executive order routed via the U.S. Postal Service. It would have required states to hand over voter names and addresses, and place specific barcodes on ballot envelopes, before USPS delivered them. Two federal judges had already blocked it. The high court kept those injunctions in place. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short concurrence. He said the rule might eventually fall within Postal Service authority, but applying it now, weeks before Election Day, would be arbitrary and capricious. Justices Alito and Thomas dissented. Mail voting has already started in Alabama, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington are next. One detail worth noting. Republican election officials from Utah, a mostly vote-by-mail state, warned the Court that a last-minute change would cause mistakes and confusion. This wasn't a partisan pile-on. Election workers of both parties said, please, not now. Scripture doesn't tell you how to vote. But it does tell you where your confidence belongs. Isaiah 40, verse fifteen — the nations are like a drop from a bucket, dust on the scales. Courts rule. Presidents push. Postal rules change. God is not surprised, and He is not up for reelection. If you want to sit with Isaiah 40 today, open it in Bible Copilot and walk through it slowly. Development two. Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate floor yesterday. His first vote in more than ninety days. The eighty-four-year-old Kentucky Republican fell in June and was briefly unconscious. No broken bones. No concussion. No stroke. But a long recovery, complicated by the lingering effects of childhood polio. He announced last year he will not seek another term. In his statement, he said, quote, I'm still not quite back to one hundred percent. There's honesty in that sentence. Ecclesiastes 12 tells us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth, before the difficult days come. They come for senators too. Pray today for aging leaders across both parties — that they would finish with humility. Pray for wisdom today before you repeat what you have heard. Development three. The House is preparing to vote this week on a Russia sanctions bill named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died in July at seventy-one. The bill would authorize the president to impose tariffs of up to five hundred percent on Russia, and up to one hundred percent on countries buying Russian energy. It puts House Democrats in a bind. Most support Ukraine. Most have opposed expanding Trump's tariff powers. This bill asks them to do both at once. No clean take here. Christians can disagree in good faith about tariffs, sanctions, and how nations should confront aggression. Proverbs 21, verse fifteen — when justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers. Pray for the members casting that vote, and for Ukrainian families still living under bombardment. This episode is presented by Bible Copilot. Today's verse is Isaiah 40, verse fifteen. Open Bible Copilot and study the Verse of the Day — you'll be guided through what the passage says, what it means, what it teaches about God, and how to apply it. Three questions each day are free. Start at mybiblecopilot dot com slash gospel. That's mybiblecopilot dot com slash gospel, or search Bible Copilot in the App Store. Isaiah 40, verse fifteen. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Courts, senators, sanctions, ballots. All of it real. None of it ultimate. The God who weighs the nations is not anxious about November, and He invites you not to be either. Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. Carry the peace of Christ into your day. We'll see you tomorrow.