Judge Reblocks Trump Mail Ballot Order

Judge Talwani temporarily blocked USPS mail ballot rules days after SCOTUS lifted a prior.

On Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a temporary restraining order blocking the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out its finalized mail-ballot regulations for two weeks, according to CNN and NBC News. The ruling came after Democratic states and voting rights groups refiled their lawsuits in response to the Postal Service's newly issued final rule, ABC News reports. Talwani wrote that plaintiff states "have neither time nor funds" to redesign ballots, seek USPS approval, and overhaul election systems before the midterms, a passage cited by CNN, NBC News, and ABC News.

Just days earlier, on August 24, the Supreme Court's conservative majority lifted a prior injunction that had blocked key elements of Trump's March executive order on mail voting, according to NBC News and ABC News. The unsigned order did not address whether the executive order is lawful, only that Talwani had acted prematurely, the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reports. The court's three liberal justices—Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson—dissented, NBC News and ABC News note. Justice Jackson warned the ruling would create a "Kafkaesque nightmare" injecting chaos into the midterms, according to the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

President Trump praised the Supreme Court's order, calling it "a great ruling for the Republican Party," PBS reports. When asked about states like North Carolina where mail ballots are due to be sent out soon, Trump told PBS that the ruling addressed "the legitimacy and the way we want to make them legitimate." Despite his criticism of mail-in voting, PBS notes that Trump has cast votes by mail himself in Florida elections. The executive order directs the Postal Service to determine which voters should receive mail-in ballots and directs DHS to build a database of eligible voters, according to PBS.

State election officials told courts that complying with the Postal Service's requirements would force them to redesign and reprint millions of ballot envelopes, something vendors said could not be done before the midterms, CNN reports. Talwani wrote that the Trump administration offered "no reply" to states' assertions that compliance would be impossible, NBC News adds. The judge found that states' compliance with the administration's demands before the 2026 midterms would be "practically impossible," according to NBC News. ABC News reports that nearly one-third of Americans vote by mail.

The Atlantic argues that the Supreme Court's decision disregarded factual findings by the district court, accusing the Roberts Court of "abdicating one of its most important roles, that of truth-teller." According to The Atlantic, the majority reimagined the executive order as a reasonable policy on "election integrity" while ignoring the burdens Talwani documented. Justice Jackson emphasized in her dissent that the strains on states "are facts" found by a district court, The Atlantic reports. The outlet contends this pattern of ignoring lower-court facts has been pronounced in Trump's second term.

Talwani scheduled a hearing for September 3 on whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would block the regulations for a longer period, CNN and ABC News report. The Trump administration could seek to quickly overturn the ruling by rushing back to the Supreme Court, NBC News notes. According to the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, election law professor Rick Hasen predicted the trial court would amend its injunction to stop USPS from implementing its final rule, and that too may end up at the Supreme Court within a week. The whipsaw legal battle is expected to continue as the November 3 midterms approach.