U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, has again temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing rules tied to a Trump executive order on mail-in and absentee ballots, according to the source article.
What Trump’s order would require
The source reports that former President Donald Trump signed a March 31 executive order titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” Section 3, as described in the ruling quoted by the source, requires all outgoing election mail to be marked “Official Election Mail,” include a unique Intelligent Mail barcode, and be pre-approved by USPS for design and barcode placement. The ruling excerpt stated: “Where a state or local election official does not obtain envelope and return envelope design approval, or does not upload voter information, or does not include unique intelligent mail bar codes on ballot envelopes, the U.S.P.S. will not mail ballots to voters.”
Why the judge hit pause
Per the source, Talwani concluded that Congress did not delegate authority to USPS to regulate election mail, and she said the requirements would effectively condition mail voting on timely USPS approvals. The judge placed a 14-day stay on “implementation or enforcement” of the rules.
In the order quoted by the source, the judge wrote that “Plaintiffs [are] likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that (1) the USPS lacked authority to issue the Final Rule; (2) the Final Rule is unconstitutional in imposing these requirements on the States; and (3) the Final Rule is unconstitutional in prohibiting non-compliant State and local officials from using the United States Postal Service to mail ballots.”
A fast-changing legal backdrop
The source states Talwani initially barred Section 3 in an Aug. 11 ruling after the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and other groups sued. A California court issued a similar injunction, which the U.S. Supreme Court stayed in a case identified by the source as Trump v. California, allowing the administration to proceed. Following that high-court action, the source says Talwani lifted a preliminary injunction and then issued a new ruling that again blocked the USPS rule.
