Federal judge blocks key parts of Trump's mail-voting order
A federal judge on June 25 blocked key parts of President Trump’s March executive order on mail voting, ruling that the attempt to dictate how states run their elections is unconstitutional. US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, an Obama appointee, found the provisions unlawful and barred the administration from enforcing them for the November midterm elections in the roughly two dozen Democratic-led states and local jurisdictions that brought the suit.
The order had directed the creation of federal voter lists and instructed the Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists — the same provision the postmaster general had told senators would mean withholding ballots from states that refused to share their voter rolls. Talwani’s ruling stops that mechanism before it can take effect for the midterms.
The decision rests on a structural point that election-law experts had flagged from the start: the Constitution assigns administration of elections to the states and to Congress, not the president, so an executive order conditioning federal ballot services on state compliance exceeds presidential authority. The administration is expected to appeal, but the injunction means the contested USPS rule cannot be applied in the suing jurisdictions while the case proceeds.