Federal Judge Indira Talwani Blocks USPS From Implementing Trump Mail Voting Order Nationwide

A federal judge in Boston blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing part of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail voting ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.

“The court issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of voting rights organizations.”

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U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s Tuesday ruling expanded on an earlier order that had prevented Trump’s administration from implementing the directive in 23 mostly Democratic-led states, and it barred USPS from implementing Section 3 of the executive order for the Nov. 3 midterm elections and any earlier federal election.

Democracy Docket

Talwani’s decision said the executive branch “has no authority to regulate elections,” and the court found the order was causing “irreparable harm” to voting rights groups and voters by creating confusion surrounding mail ballots.

The executive order, signed in March, directed states to provide lists of eligible voters who may receive mail ballots, and if states did not comply, USPS would have refused to deliver the ballots.

The Hill reported that Talwani wrote in her 27-page ruling that the order is “causing confusion” and “threatening both increasing chaos and an erosion of trust in our democracy.”

Voting rights groups and their attorneys framed the ruling as a constitutional check on presidential power, with attorneys for the plaintiffs saying, “This ruling reinforces the clear language of our Constitution: The president plays no role in our elections.”

Celia Canavan, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, celebrated the decision in a statement, saying the judge’s ruling upheld “one of our most sacred constitutional rights: the right to vote.”

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The ruling came after a June decision by the same federal court that found key portions of the executive order unconstitutional and legally void, preventing federal agencies and the Postal Service from using the order to interfere with voter rolls or mail ballots in the states and District of Columbia that brought that lawsuit.

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the injunction, and the request remained pending as of Tuesday, while the White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told The Hill that the administration “will continue lawfully enacting the agenda President Trump was elected to enact – which includes the safety and security of American elections.”

NPR reported that Talwani concluded that blocking USPS from following Trump’s directives across the country will not harm the public, noting the administration “declined to argue that enjoining implementation of the EO will jeopardize the integrity of mail-in voting.”

The Tuesday injunction prevents USPS from carrying out the executive order’s directives nationwide, including the court’s block on USPS implementing standards for mail-in and absentee ballots ahead of the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

“Tuesday’s ruling blocks USPS from implementing standards for mail-in and absentee ballots ahead of the midterm elections on Nov. 3”

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The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and other plaintiffs argued that their members need to vote by mail, and The Epoch Times quoted Talwani writing that “Plaintiff organizations’ members need to vote by mail,” while also stating members had been “deprived of their sources of assistance and support” for navigating “States’ widely varying requirements.”

The decision also leaves the administration facing continued legal uncertainty as the Supreme Court considers whether to intervene, with NPR describing the wait for the Supreme Court to weigh in on an earlier ruling by Talwani.

In a separate framing of the broader dispute, Democracy Docket reported that Talwani wrote, “Throughout the multiple actions before district courts, courts of appeal, and the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal government has declined to defend the constitutionality of the EO’s directives,” and it described the injunction as covering the entirety of the nation.

NPR quoted an ACLU attorney, Sophia Lin Lakin, saying, “The president does not get to rewrite the rules of voting, and he certainly does not get to treat voters as collateral damage,” as the court’s expanded block shapes how mail ballots are handled for the upcoming elections.