Supreme Court pushes back against Trump and GOP ahead of the midterm elections

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court in the last week has delivered major blows to President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans that suggest the justices will not be receptive to last-minute efforts to change election rules heading into the midterms.

With control of Congress at stake, the court on Monday night blocked Trump’s plan to exert federal control over mail-in ballots via a Postal Service regulation.

The decision came after the court twice last week ruled against Republicans by declining to revive a new congressional map in Missouri that would have eliminated one of two Democratic-held districts.

While the court has a 6-3 conservative majority that often rules for Republican priorities, there are limits to how receptive some justices are to more extreme requests, election law experts told NBC News. That’s especially true for cases that could disrupt voters when an election is close or already underway.

Justin Levitt, an NBC News contributor and election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the recent decisions show “there aren’t five votes for abject chaos.”

“I think the court is going to pay very close attention to any extraordinary actions that destabilize the electoral process,” said Bob Bauer, who served as White House counsel under President Barack Obama. “There’s a signal here that this sort of late intervention is going to receive scrutiny.”

On the left, the Supreme Court has been viewed with particular distrust and alarm as it relates to election issues following a major ruling in the spring that further weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act.

In the aftermath, the court quickly allowed Republican states to draw new congressional maps that eliminated majority-Black, Democratic-held seats.