Weeks before midterm elections, the Supreme Court declined to impose new restrictions on mail-in voting, preserving ballot access for millions of Americans who had already begun casting their votes remotely. The decision revealed an unexpected fracture within the Court's conservative bloc, suggesting that even among those inclined toward tighter election rules, there are limits to how far such measures should reach. In a democracy where the mechanics of voting are inseparable from its meaning, the ruling was less a resolution than a pause — a stay of conflict rather than its conclusion.