After a state election official banned the practice, a federal trial judge allowed, but did not require, counties to offer it in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
A 4-to-4 tie let stand a ruling from Pennsylvania’s highest court that had extended the deadline for counting some mailed ballots by three days, citing the pandemic and postal delays.
Lower courts had ruled that both policies — one requiring asylum seekers to stay in Mexico, the other diverting money for a border wall — were unlawful.
Warnings from Democrats that Republicans and their Supreme Court nominee threaten the Affordable Care Act elicited reassuring words from both Senator Lindsey Graham and Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
After extending the deadline to complete field work in light of the pandemic, the Trump administration reversed course. Critics saw a political motive.