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Judge Again Blocks Trump Ballot Order 08/28 06:23
A federal judge on Thursday halted -- at least for now -- attempts to
implement President Donald Trump's executive order limiting mail voting.
A federal judge on Thursday halted -- at least for now -- attempts to
implement President Donald Trump's executive order limiting mail voting.
The move stalled the directive for a second time only about a week before
the first mail ballots are due to be sent out for the rapidly approaching
midterm elections. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani blocked the
government from implementing the order for two weeks.
The case could soon be appealed back to the Supreme Court, days after the
justices handed down a procedural decision that allowed the the administration
to move ahead.
The ruling Thursday came after Democrats and voting rights groups refiled
their lawsuits to comply with the recent Supreme Court decision. The high
court's conservative majority did not rule on the legality of Trump's executive
order, instead saying Talwani had acted too soon.
Now the administration has issued a formal rule governing whether the U.S.
Postal Service will deliver states' mail ballots, effectively restarting the
legal fight.
The whipsawing legal battle has major ramifications for the midterms. Nearly
one-third of Americans vote by mail and election officials contend there isn't
enough time to revise their systems to comply with the new Postal Service
directives.
The Postal Service says it won't deliver mail ballots unless states provide
a list of voters who should receive them and format the envelopes in a certain
way.
"Plaintiff states have neither time nor funds to design new mail ballots,
seek approval of the new designs, order production of mail ballots, update
their own election management systems, train election officials to use the USPS
portal and upload citizen data to the portal, all before the midterms," Talwani
wrote Thursday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. A
hearing in the case is set for Sept. 3.
"This rule is a clear attempt by the federal government to interfere in
elections it has no power to control. Today, a federal court halted it before
this administration could wreak havoc on our elections," New York Attorney
General Letitia James, one of two dozen Democratic attorneys general who filed
one of the suits, said in a statement after the order.
Democrats and voting rights groups contend the Postal Services' demand is
unconstitutional. The Constitution, they note, grants states and, in some
cases, Congress the power to make election rules -- not the president or Postal
Service.
That reasoning led courts to block Trump's first executive order, issued
last year, that sought to change election procedures, such as requiring
documentary proof of citizenship to register.
The president has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his
2020 election loss even though he himself uses it to cast his ballot.
A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail
voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail
ballots cast.
Trump issued the executive order targeting mail voting, his second one
related to elections since he returned from office, in March.
Opponents quickly sued, but the administration argued the claims were
premature because it hadn't issued rules outlining how it would implement the
order. The administration won an initial case in Washington, D.C., with that
reasoning, but Talwani placed injunctions against implementing the order for
the November midterms in two separate cases she heard in Boston.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Monday struck down one of those
holds.
Talwani, nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, reluctantly
removed the second injunction shortly after. The plaintiffs then moved to
refile their cases, citing the Postal Service's publishing of its final rule,
in hopes of winning a more durable victory.
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