Last Court Block on Trump Mail-Ballot Order Falls — Democrats Immediately Sue Again

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston on Wednesday vacated her remaining nationwide injunction against the Postal Service rule implementing President Trump’s mail-voting executive order, two days after the Supreme Court lifted a separate stay in a related case. The same day, attorneys general from 23 states plus the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro filed a new lawsuit attacking the finalized rule.

The Postal Service had said it would not apply the rule to the 2026 midterms unless both injunctions were gone. With Talwani’s order, no court block currently stops USPS from requiring states to submit lists of mail voters, use uniquely barcoded envelopes, and face non-delivery of ballots that do not match those lists. Neither Wednesday’s ruling nor Monday’s Supreme Court decision resolved whether the policy is legal. Both turned on timing: the earlier suits were filed before the rule was final.

Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote that the high court’s reasoning compelled her to lift the injunction. The justices had said federal courts review final rules, not proposed ones or internal directives. On Tuesday she separately found that USPS “feigned compliance” and violated her prior order by issuing the final rule, but she imposed no extra penalty and noted that a published rule now gives challengers a concrete target. She left the door open for the League of Women Voters and other groups to amend their complaint and seek a new injunction.

The states’ new complaint, filed in the same Boston court, argues the rule exceeds USPS statutory authority, intrudes on states’ constitutional power to run elections, violates the Voting Rights Act, and burdens officials weeks before ballots go out. They ask the court to block enforcement immediately. Shapiro said the Constitution assigns election rules to the states, not the federal government. New York Attorney General Letitia James said the policy would create “confusion, unnecessary costs, and unacceptable risks.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-led the coalition.

The administration says the rule is chain-of-custody for mail ballots, not a determination of who may vote. USPS has said it would not independently decide eligibility. About 30 percent of 2024 voters used mail. First mailed ballots for November are due out soon. The pattern is now set: an injunction falls because the challenge was premature; the finished rule is published; the same plaintiffs sue the finished rule. Whether a new block issues before Election Day is the live midterm fight.