Indira Talwani Blocks Trump’s March Executive Order Limiting Mail Ballots In Boston

A federal judge in Boston blocked key parts of President Donald Trump’s March executive order that sought to limit who can receive mail ballots, issuing an injunction against creating a national list of approved voters eligible for mail-in ballots.

“Judge blocks part of Trump's proposed mail-in voting restrictions The ruling bars the creation of a list of voters eligible for mail-in ballots”

ABC News

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the order exceeded presidential authority and encroached on states’ power to oversee elections, writing, "[T]he Constitution reserves the power to determine voter eligibility to the States alone."

ABC News

Talwani also said, "Neither the Executive Branch nor Congress may interfere with this power," and the ruling stopped the policy from taking effect ahead of this fall’s general election in nearly two dozen mainly Democratic-led states plus Washington, D.C.

ABC News reported the injunction barred Trump’s administration from creating the national list and from new regulations intended to increase the Postal Service’s oversight of mail-in voting, while NPR said the legal fight would continue and the administration was expected to appeal.

NPR added that the ruling applied to this fall’s general election and earlier races in states that filed one of the five lawsuits, with the Trump administration expected to appeal Talwani’s decision as a separate appeal of an earlier ruling moves forward.

The blocked order directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to create a nationwide list of verified U.S. citizens over 18 and called on the U.S. Postal Service to accept mail-in ballots only from voters on preapproved lists.

Votebeat reported that Talwani’s 37-page ruling concluded Trump lacked constitutional authority to regulate state elections as he tried to do in a March executive order, and it said the injunction prevented enforcement of those provisions against 24 jurisdictions, including Arizona, California, Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Associated Press

In the same ruling, Talwani wrote, "No law enacted by Congress delegates authority to control mail-in voting to USPS," and Votebeat said the injunction applied only to this year’s elections while Talwani granted the administration’s motion to dismiss challenges to future elections as not yet ripe.

MS NOW said Talwani ruled the order violated separation of powers by creating a federal voter list and directing USPS to send mail-in ballots only to those on the list, while also citing that the Constitution does not grant the President specific powers over elections.

MS NOW further reported that Postmaster General David Steiner said at a Senate hearing Wednesday that if the rule is approved, the agency would not deliver ballots to voters in states that do not comply, and NPR described USPS proposed using information from state election officials to create voter lists.

The ruling came after a sequence of judicial setbacks to Trump’s election-related efforts, including a separate challenge in Washington, D.C., where U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols declined to block an earlier version as premature because the administration had not yet implemented the challenged provisions.

NPR said the administration was expected to appeal Talwani’s ruling, and it described Talwani’s decision as the latest legal rebuke to Trump’s efforts to shape elections and voting policy, with a federal appeals panel also ruling against a Department of Justice effort to access Michigan’s sensitive voter rolls.

In a statement, New York State Attorney General Letitia James said Talwani’s decision protects the right to vote from "another unlawful attack," adding, "This executive order would have caused chaos for states, election officials, and voters across the country. It has no place in our nation," as the case continued.

Votebeat reported that Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman, said the administration is "confident that we will ultimately prevail," while also noting the U.S. Postal Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ABC News reported that neither the White House nor the postmaster general had yet commented publicly on the ruling, and it said the Trump administration was expected to appeal, leaving the dispute over mail-in voting rules and federal oversight unresolved heading into the 2026 election cycle.