By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press
A federal judge on Wednesday lifted a major obstacle to President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting, even as Democratic state officials filed a new court challenge with the midterm elections fast approaching.
The fresh round of legal wrangling comes just two days after the Supreme Court handed down a procedural ruling in Trump’s favor, and could mean the issue lands before the high court again before the pivotal contests for control of Congress. The first mailed ballots are set to be sent out next week.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston agreed to lift an order prohibiting the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump’s order for November’s elections. She wrote that she was “compelled” to do so after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that a similar injunction she granted in a separate case was premature.
Talwani nevertheless said the executive order could unleash “chaos” and referred to it as “likely unconstitutional.”
The administration can now move forward and implement a Postal Service rule published late Friday. It would require states to follow a uniform envelope style for mail ballots and to give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them.
A new chapter in high-stakes litigation
The new lawsuit, filed by about two dozen Democratically controlled states against the U.S. Postal Service, marked a new phase in the high-stakes litigation.
It came after the Supreme Court ruled against them in a separate case, but did not say Trump’s order was legal.
The high court majority found the initial Democratic lawsuit was premature, but that was before the Republican administration issued a rule governing Postal Service delivery of mail ballots.
Election officials warn it will be impossible to implement before the first wave of mail ballots are sent out next week.
“Across the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections. Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans’ right to vote,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 25 Democratic attorneys general filing the lawsuit, said in a statement. “USPS has no authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail.”
Also among those involved in the suit, North Carolina state Attorney General Jeff Jackson
The Constitution is clear on this: The states have the authority over elections, not the Postal Service,” said Jackson said in a press release. “Not only is this last-minute rule change against the law, but it threatens North Carolinians’ voting rights and imposes a whole new process right before an election. We’re taking the Postal Service to court to stop it.”
In North Carolina, hundreds of thousands of eligible citizens vote in midterm elections by mail. Those voters include elderly people, people with disabilities, people who are recovering from natural disasters like Hurricane Helene, and service members who are stationed overseas. With mail-in ballots required to go out to eligible voters starting on Sept. 4, the new requirements risk their ability to receive their ballot in time for the upcoming election.
Jackson says these are substantial procedural changes for county boards of elections that will be nearly impossible to implement within the next week. Even if North Carolina is able to meet these demands, administrative errors or flaws in the rushed and untested new procedures could still result in USPS refusing to mail lawfully requested ballots to eligible voters.
Attorney General Jackson’s lawsuit argues that the rule violates the Constitution, which makes clear that states have the primary authority to administer elections, and upends successful, longstanding vote-by-mail procedures. He is asking the court to declare the rule unlawful and permanently stop the rule from being implemented and enforced. He is also asking for a temporary restraining order.
The Trump administration plan faces a third lawsuit originally filed in May in the nation’s capital, though courts there have so far declined to block it.
All previous challenges were filed before the administration published its mail ballot rule Friday night.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis on Wednesday said the Postal Service’s proposals were “commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots” and that the administration would continue to work to implement them to boost “the safety and security of our elections.”
The Postal Service said it would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.
National Democrats on Tuesday cited the rule in asking the federal judge in the Washington case to block Trump’s order after he declined to do so last spring, saying the administration at the time had not taken concrete action.
In Boston, Talwani also found that the administration had violated a separate injunction she had placed on the Postal Service in drafting the new rule, although she did not take any action against the government. The League of Women Voters originally filed that lawsuit, and on Wednesday they also asked for a new court order blocking the mail voting plan.
Voting by mail has long been on Trump’s radar
Trump has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his 2020 election loss and is disproportionately used by Democrats as a result of Trump’s condemnations. Since returning to power, Trump has tried to claim authority over election rules, saying he thinks Republicans should “take over” vote counting in Democratic areas.
He issued his first election executive order just months after retaking office, attempting to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, among other changes. He has also been pushing a sweeping election bill that has stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Democrats and even some within his own party.
NCN News Managing Editor Bruce Ferrell contributed to this story