Federal Judge Blocks US Postal Service From Restricting Mail-in Voting

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the US Postal Service (USPS) from implementing part of President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at tightening rules on mail-in voting ahead of November's elections, which will determine control of Congress.

The ruling by US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston marked the latest setback for Trump's efforts to expand the federal government's role in overseeing elections.

Trump, a Republican, signed the executive order in March after years of calling for tighter rules on voting by mail and promoting the false claim that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election was the result of widespread voter fraud.

The executive order called on states to provide lists of eligible voters who could receive mail-in ballots. If states failed to comply, the USPS would have been required to refuse to deliver the ballots.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement: "The entire Trump Administration will continue lawfully enacting the agenda President Trump was elected to enact – which includes the safety and security of American elections."

Tuesday's decision effectively expanded on an earlier order Talwani issued in June that prevented the Trump administration from implementing the measure in 23 mostly Democratic-led states.

Several voting rights groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had asked the judge to go further and bar the USPS from implementing the order anywhere in the country.

In granting the plaintiffs' request, Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, wrote that the federal executive branch had no authority to regulate elections, a responsibility that the US Constitution assigns to individual states.

"The (executive order) is presently causing confusion and threatening both increasing chaos and an erosion of trust in our democracy," Talwani wrote. "Enfranchisement heavily outweighs the executive's attempt to unconstitutionally insert itself into the domain of election regulation."

Sophia Lin Lakin, a voting rights lawyer with the ACLU, said in a statement: "Today's ruling sends another necessary message to an administration that continues to weaponise portions of the government to sow chaos into our elections."

Trump Seeks Supreme Court Review

The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to put Talwani's earlier decision on hold, arguing that the states' case was premature because federal agencies had not yet finalised plans to implement Trump's order.

The top US court, where conservative justices hold a 6-3 majority, has not yet ruled on the request.

In a similar case brought by the Democratic Party in a federal court in Washington, DC, a judge in May declined to immediately block the executive order, finding that doing so would be premature because the USPS had not yet issued its rule. An appeals court later affirmed that decision.

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