Rep. Panetta Part of Major Bipartisan Effort to Urge Supreme Court to Block Executive Order Limiting Mail Voting

September 9, 2026 Press Release Washington, D.C. – United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) and more than 250 current and former Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, filed an amicus brief challenging the President’s Executive Order 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, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in the matter of United States Postal Service, et al., v. State of California, et al. , a lawsuit brought by a coalition of state attorneys general against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The court case challenges a Final Rule issued by the USPS pursuant to the President’s directive that imposes unconstitutional and unworkable restrictions on mail-in voting, including requiring states to provide a “citizenship verification list” and attempting to give USPS control over who can vote by mail. One-third of Americans are expected to vote by mail in the upcoming midterm elections, a voting practice the President himself used as recently as August 2026 , when he voted in Florida’s Republican primary. In the court filing, the amici curiae argue that the President’s Executive Order 14399, “ Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections ,” violates the separation of powers and usurps 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. 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,” wrote the lawmakers. The amici also point 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 group 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. “The integrity of our constitutional system depends on each branch keeping to its assigned role. 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 imbued the Executive Branch with any such authority by statute,” concluded the lawmakers. The effort was led by House Administration Ranking Member Joe Morelle (NY-25); Assistant House Minority Leader Joe Neguse (CO-02), who leads the House Democrats’ Litigation Task Force; and Task Force Co-Chairs House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia (CA-42) and House Judiciary Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (MD-08). In the Senate, the brief was championed by Rules Committee Ranking Member Alex Padilla (D-CA); Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY); Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL); and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI). The full brief is available here . ###