Judge again blocks Trump executive order limiting mail voting
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 52/100
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on Thursday to block for 14 days President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on mail-in voting requirements in the name of election security.
Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued the order blocking parts of the U.S. Postal Service’s newly implemented rule to enact new measures on mail-in voting that Democratic plaintiffs say exceed executive authority while restricting mail-in voting. Talwani wrote that the temporary restraining order will be in place for 14 days, temporarily preventing the rules from going into effect for two weeks for all Nov. 3, 2026, elections just ahead of the general midterm election season.
Talwani wrote in her 11-page order that the restraint applies to the sections of the rule that mandate envelope standards for ballots, mandate 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.
The federal judge argued that voters face a “significant risk of disenfranchisement” if they cannot comply with the new rule’s guidelines before Election Day, basing her temporary order on the likelihood of success on the merits and what she determined was the “grave” risk of irreparable harm to U.S. voters.
“The USPS’s interest in correcting an unsubstantiated problem through likely unconstitutional means is dwarfed by the overwhelming risk of pervasive disenfranchisement of citizens who need access to mail ballots in order to vote. The balance of harms and public interest warrants a TRO,” Talwani wrote.
Her ruling is the latest development in the multi-layered legal saga that stemmed from President Trump’s executive order aimed at “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” signed in March.
After Talwani initially blocked parts of the order in July, the Supreme Court ruled that her order was premature, as it was based on USPS’s proposed rule, not a finalized rule. However, after USPS finalized its regulation this week, 24 states refiled a lawsuit over the rule. Talwani ruled on Wednesday that USPS had defied her preliminary injunction from Aug. 11 when it issued the final rule but did not block its publication then.
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