A federal judge in Boston issued a nationwide injunction halting proposed United States Postal Service rules that would have placed new restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the upcoming general election.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani ruled against the Trump administration in League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump.
The decision blocks the federal government from implementing Section 3 of Executive Order 14399—issued in March—along with a related rule developed by the USPS to carry out the order.
The injunction follows a narrower ruling from June that temporarily blocked the policies across 23 states. That previous ruling is currently under appeal, with a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court expected shortly.
In her ruling, Judge Talwani addressed the limits of executive power over state and federal voting procedures, writing that “the executive branch has no authority to regulate elections.”
Attorneys and advocacy groups involved in the litigation argued that changing postal regulations close to an election creates administrative disruptions for local election officials and voters alike.
“This ruling reaffirms a basic constitutional principle: the President cannot rewrite how Americans vote by executive order,” said Rachel Snyder, policy counsel at Law Forward, in a statement responding to the ruling. “States and Congress set the rules for elections, not the Postal Service, and not the White House.”
Snyder added that attempting to alter election logistics late in the cycle poses practical risks for voters in states like Wisconsin.
“Not only is this executive order illegal, rushing to implement it in the middle of an ongoing election, and within 90 days of the November general election, creates a unique threat to Wisconsin’s election system that would disenfranchise countless voters this fall,” Snyder said.
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