{"id":70877,"date":"2026-08-26T22:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/70877\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T22:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:42:17","slug":"judge-removes-legal-obstacle-to-trump-mail-voting-order-but-new-challenges-are-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/70877\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge removes legal obstacle to Trump mail voting order, but new challenges are rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Wednesday lifted a major obstacle<\/a> to President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order limiting mail voting, even as Democratic state officials filed a new court challenge with the midterm elections fast approaching. <\/p>\n

The fresh round of legal wrangling comes just two days after the Supreme Court handed down a procedural ruling in Trump\u2019s favor, and could mean the issue lands before the high court again before the pivotal contests for control of Congress. The first mailed ballots are set to be sent out next week.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston agreed to lift an order prohibiting the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump\u2019s order<\/a> for November\u2019s elections. She wrote that she was \u201ccompelled\u201d to do so after the Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority ruled<\/a> that a similar injunction she granted in a separate case<\/a> was premature.<\/p>\n

Talwani nevertheless said the executive order could unleash \u201cchaos\u201d and referred to it as \u201clikely unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administration can now move forward and implement a Postal Service rule<\/a> published late Friday. It would require states to follow a uniform envelope style for mail ballots and to give the Postal Service<\/a> a list of voters eligible to receive them.<\/p>\n

A new chapter in high-stakes litigation<\/p>\n

The new lawsuit, filed by about two dozen Democratically controlled states against the U.S. Postal Service, marked a new phase in the high-stakes litigation. <\/p>\n

It came after the Supreme Court ruled against them<\/a> in a separate case, but did not say Trump\u2019s order was legal.<\/p>\n

The high court majority found the initial Democratic lawsuit was premature, but that was before the Republican administration issued a rule governing Postal Service delivery of mail ballots<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Election officials warn it will be impossible to implement<\/a> before the first wave of mail ballots are sent out next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections. Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans\u2019 right to vote,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 25 Democratic attorneys general filing the lawsuit, said in a statement. \u201cUSPS has no authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration plan faces a third lawsuit originally filed in May in the nation\u2019s capital, though courts there have so far declined to block it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for the Ground Game Newsletter:
\n Your guide to the biggest stories in politics, policy and U.S. elections.\n <\/p>\n

All previous challenges were filed before the administration published its mail ballot rule Friday night.<\/p>\n

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis on Wednesday said the Postal Service\u2019s proposals were \u201ccommonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots\u201d and that the administration would continue to work to implement them to boost \u201cthe safety and security of our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Postal Service said it would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.<\/p>\n

National Democrats on Tuesday cited the rule in asking the federal judge in the Washington case to block Trump\u2019s order after he declined to do so<\/a> last spring, saying the administration at the time had not taken concrete action. <\/p>\n

In Boston, Talwani also found that the administration had violated a separate injunction she had placed on the Postal Service in drafting the new rule, although she did not take any action against the government. The League of Women Voters originally filed that lawsuit, and on Wednesday they also asked for a new court order blocking the mail voting plan.<\/p>\n

Voting by mail has long been on Trump\u2019s radar<\/p>\n

Trump has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his 2020 election loss<\/a> and is disproportionately used by Democrats as a result of Trump\u2019s condemnations. Since returning to power, Trump has tried to claim authority over election rules<\/a>, saying he thinks Republicans should \u201ctake over\u201d vote counting in Democratic areas.<\/p>\n

He issued his first election executive order<\/a> just months after retaking office, attempting to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, among other changes. He has also been pushing a sweeping election bill that has stalled in the Senate<\/a> amid opposition from Democrats and even some within his own party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Wednesday lifted a major obstacle to President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order limiting mail voting,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[362,61,1283,56,38,286,7398,50,8,25495,6467,169,2635,1520,880,9,67,7,363,54,760,69],"class_list":["post-70877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-2026-elections","tag-ap-top-news","tag-boston","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-executive-orders","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-indira-talwani","tag-lauren-bis","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-letitia-james","tag-midterm-elections","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-news","tag-voting","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117164228346471387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}