Judge Blocks USPS Mail-In Restrictions Before Midterms

Judge blocks – A federal judge in Washington blocked the U.S. Postal Service’s proposed restrictions on mail-in voting, ruling they violated a 2021 settlement requiring expedited ballot handling through 2028. The decision marks another court setback for President Donald Trum

By Wednesday afternoon, the fight over mail-in voting had already moved back into federal court—this time with the U.S. Postal Service’s own proposed rule at the center.

A federal judge in Washington blocked the Postal Service’s restrictions on mail-in voting after finding they violated a settlement with the NAACP that required expedited mail-in ballot handling. The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan. landed as part of a fast run of setbacks for President Donald Trump’s push to severely restrict mail-in voting ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. With Republicans locked in a tight battle to maintain control of both houses of Congress. the legal pressure is beginning to feel like a bottleneck.

Sullivan’s order was the second defeat in court for Trump in as many weeks.

Trump has long argued, without providing evidence, that mail-in voting is prone to fraud. That claim has been one pillar of his years-long effort to undermine faith in U.S. elections, alongside the false assertion that his 2020 loss resulted from widespread voter fraud.

The Postal Service’s proposed rule, floated in May, would have required states to provide lists of voters and adopt new balloting procedures before the mail agency would make deliveries of ballots. If states did not comply, the Postal Service would refuse to deliver the ballots.

In siding with the NAACP rights group, Sullivan found the Postal Service’s approach ran into a 2021 legal settlement. That settlement requires USPS officials to take “extraordinary measures” to ensure timely delivery of ballot mail through 2028.

Neither the Postal Service nor the Justice Department—where attorneys represent the administration in court—immediately responded to requests for comment.

The judge’s ruling prevented the Postal Service from implementing the proposed regulations. The restrictions were closely tied to a wider effort by Trump that began with a March executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state. That order also required the USPS to deliver ballots only to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list.

The timing mattered. Just weeks earlier, on June 25, another federal judge blocked Trump from implementing the entire executive order ahead of the midterms. In that separate decision, Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sided with a coalition of Democratic-led states. ruling that Trump exceeded his authority by trying to overhaul election procedures. Those procedures. in the judges’ view. remain the responsibility of states and local governments—a system that has been in place since the republic’s founding in 1789.

Taken together, the rulings show how quickly election rule changes can be stalled when federal actions collide with settlements and long-held questions about who controls election administration.

USPS mail-in voting NAACP Emmet Sullivan Indira Talwani Trump executive order Department of Homeland Security midterms November 3 election law