The founders of our democracy understood a simple truth: No president should wield unchecked power over the machinery of elections.
That principle is embedded throughout our Constitution. Congress, not the White House, established the U.S. Postal Service. States and Congress, not the president, set the rules for federal elections. Our system depends on independent institutions that serve the public equally rather than advancing the interests of those who temporarily hold political power.
Today, that constitutional principle is under assault.
A federal judge last week lifted a nationwide injunction that had blocked the Postal Service from implementing portions of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, potentially transforming Postal Service from a neutral carrier of ballots into a gatekeeper of voting rights.
The ruling did not address the constitutionality of the administration’s directive requiring states to provide absentee voter lists to the Postal Service, which would then determine how ballots are processed and delivered.
Instead, it cleared a procedural hurdle while broader legal challenges continue. At issue is a fundamental constitutional question: whether a president can use an independent federal institution to exercise powers over elections that the Constitution assigns to Congress and the states.
The Postal Service was deliberately structured to operate independently of the White House. Following postal reforms enacted in 1970, Congress insulated the agency from direct presidential control, placing it under an independent Board of Governors and assigning it a clear mission: provide universal service to the American people regardless of geography, income or political affiliation.
Yet Trump has repeatedly proposed bringing the Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department and has entertained broader efforts to weaken or eliminate its independent governance structure. Reports earlier this year indicated that administration officials were exploring ways to place the Postal Service under direct executive branch authority, a move that legal scholars and postal experts warned could violate the framework Congress established to protect the agency from political manipulation.
The Postal Service exists to deliver ballots, not determine who should receive them.
It exists to serve the people, not police voters.
It exists to facilitate democratic participation, not stand in the way of it.
When an administration seeks greater control over election infrastructure while simultaneously claiming authority to determine voter eligibility, Americans should ask not only whether those actions are legal but whether they honor the democratic values our institutions were created to protect.
The implications extend beyond elections. The Postal Service delivers prescription drugs to seniors, benefits checks to retirees, correspondence to military families and business shipments to every corner of the nation. More than 600,000 postal workers sustain a universal service network that reaches addresses no private carrier would willingly serve. Access to that network should never depend upon loyalty to the party in power.
Last week’s court ruling makes this debate more urgent. The administration has already succeeded, at least temporarily, in clearing the way for a trusted public institution to be used as a vehicle for expanding presidential control over elections. The Constitution deliberately disperses power over voting to prevent exactly this kind of partisan manipulation.
The National Urban League has long defended voting rights, democratic participation and the integrity of public institutions. We believe the Postal Service should remain independent, nonpartisan and accountable to the American people, not to the political agenda of any administration.
As thousands gathered Friday for the March on Washington: Defend the Vote rally, they stood in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded the nation that democracy requires constant vigilance. Sixty-three years later, the struggle is not only about access to the ballot box but about protecting the institutions that make free and fair elections possible. When independent public institutions are drawn into partisan battles over voting rights, Americans of every political persuasion should recognize what is at stake: the integrity of our democracy itself.
The mail belongs to the people.
The ballot belongs to the voter.
The institution entrusted with delivering both should never be weaponized for partisan gain.
Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League and was mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002.