Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Efforts to Sabotage Mail Voting
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On Thursday evening, federal district Judge Indira Talwani issued a new order that temporarily blocks an effort by the Trump administration that appears designed to sabotage voting by mail in the upcoming midterm election. Talwani previously blocked an executive order that President Donald Trump issued in March, which ordered the US Postal Service (USPS) to impose a byzantine array of new regulations on voting by mail, but the Supreme Court reinstated the order on Monday.
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Washington ExaminerThe Justice Department notified the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts that the administration is appealing Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s second block on the rule to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. The appeal came less than 24 hours after Talwani issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking parts of USPS’s new rule enacting new guardrails on mail-in voting in the name of election security.
The HillTrump administration appeals latest temporary block on mail-in voting changes The Justice Department (DOJ) on Friday appealed a temporary block on the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail-in ballot regulations, an apparent bid to fast-track legal proceedings as the midterms loom just months away. The notice from DOJ lawyers follows a late-night ruling from a federal judge in Boston on Thursday that barred the Trump administration…
The FederalistU.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee and past Democrat donor in Massachusetts, issued a temporary restraining order on a USPS rule that would require states to provide basic voter data to the Postal Service, as well as change ballot envelopes to include unique barcodes associated with individual voters’ profiles, in an effort to start securing voting by mail.
PBS NewsHourJudge again blocks Trump mail ballot executive order in ruling that's likely to be swiftly appealed A federal judge on Thursday halted — at least for now — attempts to implement President Donald Trump's executive order limiting mail voting.
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Among other things, the new rules require states to mail ballots in a special envelope which must include certain design elements mandated by the federal government. These envelopes must be preapproved by the Postal Service, and individually scanned in a process that the Trump administration claims will take “less than a minute per mailpiece.”
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The FederalistThrough the Final Rule, the USPS is refusing to send mail ballots to eligible voters unless States or local election officials submit their mail ballot envelopes and return envelopes and receive advance approval from the USPS without regard to impending deadlines for the November 3, 2026 election. [Citation removed]. Additionally, the Final Rule requires elections officials to create accounts for a new electronic portal, certify that they have received approval regarding the mail ballot design, and thereafter upload to the USPS portal each voter’s information, including name, address, and a unique intelligent mail barcode.
Washington ExaminerTalwani’s Thursday order applied to the sections of the rule that mandate envelope standards for ballots, state registration, and voter enrollment on the USPS’s federal mail-in ballot portal, and block states from sending ballots to voters who do not comply with the new envelope or portal standards.
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Talwani had ruled on Wednesday that USPS defied her preliminary injunction from Aug. 11 when it issued the final rule, but did not block its publication at the time. On Thursday, Talwani blocked the rule for two weeks, though its status still remains in limbo as her restraining order heads to the 1st Circuit.
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The FederalistTalwani had already issued an injunction on the policy before it was even finalized, and the Supreme Court barred this injunction. But Talwani is back now with a new injunction after the policy came out, claiming such publication satisfies the high court’s concerns that the judicial branch only reviews “final rules, not proposed rules,” and arguing that SCOTUS did not answer the question on the merits of the policy itself.
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Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 New York Times Postal Service Rule Could Bar Millions From Voting By Mail A judge temporarily blocked the agency from refusing to deliver ballots in noncompliant states, which could disproportionately affect Democrats and many battleground elections.
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02 Vox Well, that was quick. One of the Supreme Court’s worst ideas could save the midterms from Trump
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03 Washington Examiner The rule directs states to notify the agency at least 90 days ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections if they intend to submit the data in accordance with the new regulation. The rule also gives guidelines, including specific voter barcodes, for envelopes and mail-in ballots to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting security.
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04 The Hill Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow military’s transgender ban The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow the Pentagon to enforce a ban on transgender troops serving in the military, rocketing the issue up to the high court for a second time.   The petition asks the justices to weigh whether the ban is constitutional and reverse an appeals court decision that blocked…
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05 The Federalist A federal judge Thursday blocked an election integrity measure from the United States Postal Service (USPS) just days after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted that same judge’s injunction on the policy.
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