Maybe it's just my distrust of the whole thing, but I wouldn't put it past them to do this just for plausible deniability, while the post office still rejects everything they can in accordance to trump's wishes.. That way people will trust mail in voting, and end up with their votes rejected anyway. They get exactly what they want while still giving some illusion of fairness.

Then, after the elections they'll just say whoops! USPS shouldn't have done that, and nothing will happen.

Edit: on another article about this..

Alito wrote in his dissent that the Postal Service “has broad authority to regulate the mail” and likely does have the power to enforce Trump’s restrictions.

So ya. It's a trap.

They want to give us the impression of a "big victory" so that we'll forget about the Voting Rights Act overturning and all the last minute redistricting that is still in play.

i.e. they want this to be last big election ruling we remember so that we'll all look back and say "wuh wuh I guess they won fair and square because we won that case so muh muh"

Plausible deniability.

Remember, trump only knows a ridiculous bully bulldozer negotiation style - "I'm suing you for 11 trillion dollars!!!!"

That's ridiculous, so it all goes on circular fighting for months/years, eventually they settle for $17 million in a "big loss" for trump when he shouldn't have even had a penny in the first place.

In this case, the damage is already done at USPS and beyond.

• The predominate ballot machine company was just recently purchased by trump loyalists
• Biden was blocked on procedure but didn't take extreme measures to remove dejoy from USPS or to halt or reverse the damage he did.
• Musk manipulated votes in multiple ways, he now has more money and more criminal liability this time around... So he'll probably just sit this one out?
• flock cameras are watching you vote this time, scanning your face/plates, linked to a profile with your "estimated threat level" and deploying the limited number of brown shirts they have to most "efficient" areas where "they" are gathering based on flock cross referenced with exit polls and historical turnout for registered voters at a given polling place.
• ice agents may or may not disrupt polls directly, though the threat alone will keep many voters away. Though they may avoid direct voter intimidation beyond a couple early performative shows,, they may just cause strategic disruptions NEAR real time targeted key polling places (see above point) and disrupt common car/bus travel routes
• all the above in coordination with news/media and social media companies owned and run by complicit oligarchs with incentive to tell the story the other fascists need told.
• and a now mature cult, pardoned from consequences of a prior failed coup, likely impatiently waiting for another story of national violence to help them unite as perceived victims or bask in the glow of a "victorious" violent act for "their team".

So scotus does this with nothing to lose. Grandmas in Ohio then trust and defend the validity of voting and believe that checks and balances still in place to supervise an "overzealous" trump. They then refer back to this after the manipulated election to come - "Look! These liberals are never happy? The supreme court denied changes that we still should have had but didn't need, and they still lost, while cheating, and they can't accept it" and then broken scotus says your right actually and they rule the other way leading up to '28.

If we are still a country then.

Roberts, Barrett, and Gorsuch appear to actually stand up for federalism. They might actually think the postal rule is illegal because it usurps power reserved to the states.

Kavanaugh thinks the rule is probably legal, but it's too close to the election to implement.

Alito and Thomas dissented. They think the rule should go into effect now.

They save him from the most blatantly, stupidly obvious unconstitutional things he tries to do so there's a faint gossamer of legitimacy left on the 90% of his bullshit that they find some weak-ass excuse to let through. This makes it more likely that they can lock in and perpetuate the more systemic aspects of his grasping for power.

Cynically? After the elections are held, Trump and the Republicans are going to challenge every single Democrat headed for office, and SCROTUS will uphold enough of those challenges for the Republicans to keep control (like they did in Bush v Gore). They'll point back to these rulings as evidence of their impartiality.

Ehhh they're only 90% corrupt. On most issues it's hard to tell because the line is so far from normal liberal politics but it is there. They want the right-wing oligarchy but not a full on dictatorship. They have been pretty consistent and not letting him go full Mussolini even though they'll allow most kinds of fuckery.

Except Thomas and Alito. Those two are full on fascists.

Did you want them to support disallowimg mail in ballots? I see this as a good ruling for democracy.

The usual suspects dissented

Their whole thing does have the common theme of decentralizing and throwing as much as possible back to the states. Which includes funding.

Long game it does set it up for oligarchs (even more so) while projecting an impression of leaving the republic or whatever intact.

In addition to what you all are saying about not being so blatant about creating your own voter fraud.

That said, I can’t imagine there not being individual bad players peppered throughout the postal service. Use your drop boxes and not the mail box for returns.

They've not received their payment

They can get their powers removed if they sway the voting population too far against them.