A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday removed a major legal obstacle to President Trump’s executive order on mail voting, clearing the way for the U.S. Postal Service to implement new rules ahead of midterm elections. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani lifted an injunction that had prohibited the Postal Service from carrying out the order for November’s contests. The judge stated she was compelled to do so following a recent Supreme Court ruling that found a similar injunction in a separate case was premature. Despite lifting the restriction, Talwani indicated concerns about the order, noting it could produce “chaos” and describing it as “likely unconstitutional.”
The Postal Service rule, published late Friday, would require states to adopt uniform envelope styles for mail ballots and provide the Postal Service with lists of voters eligible to receive them. Election officials have warned that implementation before the first wave of mailed ballots are sent out next week will be impossible. The administration argues the measures represent “commonsense” protections for election security, according to White House spokesperson Lauren Bis, who said the government would continue working to implement them.
Democratic state officials have mounted a new legal challenge, with approximately two dozen state attorneys general filing suit against the U.S. Postal Service. New York Attorney General Letitia James, representing the coalition, stated that the federal government was “attempting to meddle” in state election preparations “at the last moment” and questioned the Postal Service’s authority to determine mail voting eligibility. This lawsuit represents a new phase in ongoing litigation, coming after the Supreme Court rejected an earlier Democratic challenge on procedural grounds without ruling on the order’s legality.
A third lawsuit challenging the plan remains pending in federal court in Washington, where judges have previously declined to block the order. Judge Talwani in Boston also found that the administration violated a separate injunction she had issued on the Postal Service while drafting the new rule, though she took no enforcement action against the government. The League of Women Voters, which originally filed that lawsuit, requested a new court order blocking the mail voting plan on Wednesday.
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