The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states should be allowed to count ballots that are mailed on time but arrive after Election Day.

In a 5-4 decision, the high court rejected a Republican-led attack on laws in more than half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots to arrive and be counted some number of days after the election, provided they are postmarked by Election Day. The outcome spares officials the headache of changing their ballot rules just a few months before the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

The decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is a defeat for President Donald Trump who has repeatedly claimed mail-in voting encourages fraud, an assertion not backed up by evidence. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. also joined the court’s three liberals in the ruling.

The question before the court was whether Mississippi was acting legally when it permitted ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrived within five business days of the election.

“The federal election-day statutes do not preempt Mississippi’s law because the defining element of an ‘election’ has always been the electorate’s choice of candidate,” the decision said.

A voter’s choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are received, it said.

Thirteen other states have grace periods for ballots cast by mail. Another 15 have longer deadlines for military and overseas voters.

Last year, Trump signed an executive order that would require votes to be “cast and received” by Election Day, but it has been blocked by court challenges.

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart noted during arguments before the Supreme Court in March that the Trump administration had failed to produce a single case of fraud due to mail ballots that arrived after Election Day.

Among the state with deadlines after Election Day are California, Texas, New York and Illinois. Rural areas of Alaska also allow post-Election Day ballots.

The Associated Press reported that four states dominated by Republican lawmakers, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio and Utah, dropped their grace periods last year. That’s according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and Voting Rights Lab.

President Donald Trump said he voted by mail in a Florida election due to scheduling conflicts, explaining he could not be there in person. The remarks come as Palm Beach County records show Trump cast a mail ballot in an upcoming special election, despite his public criticism of the voting method as fraudulent.

During arguments, some of the conservative justices seemed skeptical of late-arriving mail ballots. Justice Samuel Alito for example asked about the appearance of fraud if ballots that arrived after Election Day flipped an election.

The liberal justices on the other hand indicated they would uphold the state laws and noted that federal law allows states to set their own regulations governing elections. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the states and Congress should decide the issue, not the courts. 

Federal law sets Election Day as “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November.”

Mississippi passed its election law during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was challenged by the Republican National Committee, the Mississippi Republican Party and others.

An appellate court, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, struck down Mississippi’s grace period. Judge Andrew Oldham wrote that the state law allowing the late-arriving ballots to be counted violated federal law.

The three judges who decided Mississippi’s law was unconstitutional were all appointed by Trump during his first term.

San Francisco police officers arrested 20 people late Saturday night in SoMa after breaking up an unauthorized “Stud Alley” block party with hundreds of participants, according to the police department. It marked the second round of arrests of Pride attendees this weekend after police arrested five people at the tail end of the Trans March on Friday. 

Police officers arrived near Kissling and 11th streets at 10:58 p.m. and “encountered an unsanctioned and unpermitted block party” that had about 300 participants and a D.J., according to a statement from the San Francisco Police Department. The following details are based on the department statement and social media videos; two participants reached by Mission Local declined to comment. 

The department said that the large crowd “prompted the response of additional SFPD resources.” Social media footage shows dozens of officers marching through SoMa streets armed with batons, wearing riot helmets and carrying plastic zip-ties.

Officers then gave an order to disperse, the department said, and told the D.J. to leave the area. The D.J. left but the partygoers did not, the department said, and officers tried to “disperse the crowd.” Two people “resisted,” the department said, and officers arrested them.

Several people also “vandalized two vehicles passing through the area,” the department said, and made them “inoperable.” The two vehicles may have been Waymos: One online video shows two Waymos in the street blinking hazard lights, and appears to show one officer telling others that the Waymos had been vandalized. 

The party then reformed a few blocks later at Washburn Street about two blocks away, the department said, with about 200 people; the police shut that gathering down as well.

Footage from the scene shows a line of officers in tactical gear advancing rapidly on the crowd, shoving people out of the alleyway before forming a cordon line to block the street. In total, 18 people were arrested on Washburn Street, the department said, for “obstructing or delaying a peace officer and unlawful assembly.” 

The department said that “makeshift barricades” had been set up to keep officers at bay; at one point in a video, an officer moves several large rocks that were placed in the street. Two officers sustained minor injuries, the department said.

SoMa has been the site of unsanctioned “Stud Alley” parties on the Saturday evenings of Pride weekend for at least the past six years. The parties have made headlines in past years for graffiti, broken windshields and outraged neighbors. 

The organizers of Stud Alley posted an announcement this year that they would not host a party, saying that the party had recently “outgrown itself,” but reminded past party-goers of the unofficial slogan that is frequently graffitied onto walls around the party: Every alley is Stud Alley. 

Jesse, a bartender at the nearby bar the Willow, reported seeing cops “everywhere” after the Saturday incident, when people “fled” to the bar to escape. He did not report hearing of any incidents of violence between party-goers and police. 

The arrests mark the second encounter between Pride-goers and police this weekend. On Friday, at the end of the Trans March, police officers arrested five marchers for alleged vandalism and assault after march-goers allegedly spray-painted several statues and a person.

On Sunday afternoon, Washburn and Kissling streets still bore signs of the party. Spray painted on the walls of buildings were “Fuck SFPD,” “No Cops at Pride,” and “Every Alley Stud Alley.”