Breaking: In big win for voters, Supreme Court won’t revive Missouri gerrymander before midterms

• Missouri cannot use its gerrymandered map for the upcoming midterm elections after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to wade into a purely state matter.
  
  
• The denial from Justice Brett Kavanaugh today ends a year-long bid by Missouri Republicans to grab another congressional seat this fall. It’s a major win for voters and Democrats.

➤ More on this breaking story

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let it use flawed immigration database to purge state voter rolls

• The DOJ asked the high court to lift a lower court’s order and allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use a flawed federal immigration database for voter roll purges.
  
  
• It’s the latest attempt by the Trump administration to get the Supreme Court’s conservative-appointed majority to lift a lower ruling blocking Trump’s attempt to increase the executive branch’s control over elections and Americans’ personal data.
  
  
• The DOJ’s request comes just days after a federal appeals court denied the administration’s motion to pause the lower court’s order from June. That order blocked the use of the DHS’ modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system.

➤ More on the DOJ begging SCOTUS

USPS confirms internal probe into whistleblower’s mail voting allegations

• The USPS Office of Inspector General told Democracy Docket that it’s probing a whistleblower’s allegations that USPS is rushing out a flawed system to implement Trump’s anti-mail voting order and is reviewing them.
  
  
• The confirmation goes further than what was publicly known last week, when Democratic lawmakers said the inspector general had opened an investigation after urging the watchdog to examine the whistleblower’s claims.

➤ More on the USPS’ internal probe

Postal Service overstepped its powers with mail voting rules, pro-voting groups tell appeals court

• The Postal Service’s new mail voting rules overstep the authority granted to it by Congress, pro-voting groups argued in a brief asking a federal appeals court to keep the rule frozen before the upcoming elections.
  
  
• “This is not a mere ‘envelope design’ or labeling rule, but a barrier to ballot transmission,” the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts (LWVMA) and other pro-voting groups wrote in a brief filed on Monday with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.

➤ Inside the pro-voting groups’ argument

Justice Department makes final case to 1st Circuit to quickly revive USPS anti-mail voting rule 

• The Postal Service’s mail voting restrictions are “modest” and “clearly lawful,” the DOJ said in its final filing to a federal appeals court in a bid to swiftly implement the standards for the November elections.
  
  
• "Ballot mail remains deliverable; in fact, USPS intends to process and deliver as many lawful ballots as the States wish to send,” lawyers for the administration wrote.

➤ What else did they say in the filing?

More USPS order news you may have missed:

• A lot has happened over the last few days, so let’s get you caught up:
   

  • The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to lift the block on USPS mail voting restrictions.
    
    

  • Major pieces of the Post Office’s mail voting rule are missing while the Justice Department presses SCOTUS to move it forward.
    
    

  • States challenging Trump’s mail voting rule must mail more than 51 million ballots by late October.
    
    

  • Trump DOJ says states can handle last-minute mail voting overhaul.
    
    

  • Democrats, voting rights advocates praised the block on Trump’s anti-mail voting order for midterms.

➤ How major pieces of the order are missing

Minnesota justice warns electronic poll book conspiracy theory could threaten voters’ ability to cast ballots

• A state Supreme Court justice raised concerns that the city of Oak Grove’s request to use paper poll books rather than electronic records could disenfranchise thousands of voters.
  
  
• The city wants to overhaul its election system less than two months before election day, in part because of conspiracy theories about the iPads poll workers use to verify voter records.

➤ What did the justice say?

Delaware upholds rights for permanent absentee ballot voters, rejecting GOP challenge

• In a win for voters in Delaware, a state judge ruled against two Republican state senate candidates who argued the state’s permanent absentee ballot voting measures violate the state’s constitution.
  
  
• The ruling marks a loss for Delaware’s top Republican elected official and for the GOP’s crusade against mail voting in the run-up to midterms.

➤ More on the GOP’s latest loss

LIVE: Trump's election rigging scheme is back at the Supreme Court

• SCOTUS could throw mail voting into chaos just weeks before the midterms, leaving millions of ballots in limbo. Join Marc at 6:15 p.m. ET for a live breakdown of what's at stake and what it means for voters this fall.
  
  
• Our last livestream hit almost 100,000 views. If that's any indication, you won't want to miss the one today.

➤ Watch Marc live

Here we share noteworthy briefs on all things voting rights and democracy. Have a footnote for us? Send it to newsletters@democracydocket.com.

• Trump appears to have spent the holiday weekend by going on an unhinged posting spree, sharing pictures that renamed New Mexico to “New America.” He posted at least seven images on Monday.
  
  
• Speaking of Trump, he once again suggested he was at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 and was grabbed by firefighters to get away from a potentially collapsing building. As one prominent fact-checker quickly pointed out: He was not there.
  
  
• MAGA is big mad about… a bakery that doesn’t like Trump. Cancel cakes and cookies!