A federal judge late Sunday blocked the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail voting, creating another legal hurdle for the administration as the Supreme Court prepares to consider the dispute.
The Supreme Court is already reviewing the administration’s appeal of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston that barred the Postal Service from enforcing its new mail-voting policy before this year’s midterm elections.
In Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols issued a comparable order late Sunday, temporarily halting the rule announced Aug. 21.
“Plaintiffs have demonstrated that, absent an injunction, there is an increased risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted in the upcoming elections,” Nichols wrote in granting the preliminary injunction. “The public has a strong interest in ensuring that doesn’t happen.”
Nichols had declined to grant an injunction in May, finding that the lawsuit had been filed prematurely. The Supreme Court relied on similar reasoning late last month when it lifted Talwani’s earlier freeze. After the administration formally issued the rule to advance Trump’s plan, however, plaintiffs in both Boston and Washington refiled their cases.
Talwani was nominated by former President Barack Obama, while Nichols was nominated by Trump.
The Postal Service regulations arose from an executive order Trump issued earlier this year. Election officials have said the changes cannot realistically be put in place so close to a general election.
Under the regulations, the Postal Service would have to approve every ballot-envelope design in advance, while states would be required to upload the identities of ballot recipients to an online portal that remains inactive. At least three states — Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin — have already begun sending mail ballots, and additional states are expected to start distributing them this week.
A whistleblower report submitted to Congress warned that allowing the rule to take effect for the midterms could disenfranchise millions of voters. The union representing Postal Service employees has also opposed the executive order, arguing that postal workers are not responsible for verifying voter eligibility.
Trump has long targeted mail voting, falsely blaming the practice for his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden and portraying it as a source of fraud, despite having voted by mail himself.
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