US judge again blocks Postal Service mail-in voting rule

A federal judge in Boston on Friday extended a ban preventing the Trump administration from implementing a new U.S. Postal Service rule that would tighten mail-in voting requirements ahead of the November congressional elections. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued the injunction at the request of Democratic-led states and voting rights groups, according to multiple reports, after North Carolina became the first state to send out mail ballots for the elections that day.

Judge's ruling

Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, had issued a 14-day temporary restraining order the previous week. Her new injunction extends that block while legal challenges proceed. In her ruling, Talwani wrote that only laws passed by Congress can supersede states' authority over elections, adding that "the executive has no inherent authority" over voting rules, as reported by several outlets. She also wrote that Congress has never delegated authority over voting to the Postal Service, and that the agency's new rule "clashes with Congress's statutory scheme, and is unconstitutional."

Talwani further noted that the immediate deadlines demanded by the rule would create "chaos" for groups that provide information about how to vote, citing organizations such as the League of Women Voters that "do not know whether to advise their members to vote by mail, despite legal entitlement, due to the high risk of disenfranchisement." She also said it was "implausible" that states could comply with the rule for this year's elections, as it would require thousands of election jurisdictions to submit voter information to a USPS-run online portal that does not yet exist, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Postal Service rule

The rule, issued by USPS to implement an executive order Trump signed in March, requires states to supply the Postal Service with lists of mail ballot recipients and mandates that all outbound and return ballot envelopes bear unique barcodes. Under the rule, the USPS may refuse to deliver ballots that do not comply with the new standards or are associated with voters who do not appear on the lists. Trump has said the changes are necessary to combat widespread voter fraud, including by non-citizens, though several reports note that independent election experts say there is no evidence such fraud exists in large numbers. The president has also pushed the false claim that his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread voter fraud, as stated in several reports.

Legal context and appeals

The administration had asked the Supreme Court to intervene and lift Talwani's earlier order. The court's 6-3 conservative majority last week lifted a prior order Talwani had issued preventing USPS from imposing similar restrictions. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had not acted on a separate request before Talwani issued her latest decision, according to multiple reports.

The Justice Department argued that USPS had clear authority to implement what it called "modest" envelope design requirements, as reported by the Lincoln Journal Star. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in an emergency petition to the Supreme Court that an earlier temporary restraining order was "baseless" and would cause "serious irreparable harm," according to the Los Angeles Times.

After Friday's ruling, the administration swiftly filed a notice of appeal, as reported by Livemint and The Hindu. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while the USPS declined to comment on the ruling.

Reactions and whistleblower report

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, "We've now secured longer-term relief that will keep the USPS changes blocked while our case moves forward," according to the Los Angeles Times. Bonta's spokesman, Walter Garcia, said the Justice Department had "flouted standard procedural rules" by approaching the high court before lower courts had weighed in.

A whistleblower statement from an anonymous federal official, released Tuesday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, alleged that USPS was rushing to implement a hastily created system using "an entirely new and untested set of IT systems" that could cause "catastrophic problems" and disenfranchise millions of voters, as reported by the Charlottesville Progress and Los Angeles Times. The unidentified employee's allegations were reported by these outlets.

In response, the Postal Service said Friday that while its system was developed on an "accelerated schedule," quality and security standards "were not compromised," and the agency stands behind "both the rigor of our process and the resulting system," as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. Steven W. Monteith, the Postal Service's chief customer and marketing officer, said officials were still making "refinements" to the portal.

Postmaster General David Steiner defended the agency's handling of the issue, saying, "We have at all times acted within our legal authority to issue a rule to achieve those policies, but ultimately the courts will decide that question, and we will follow the court's determination," as reported by Livemint and The Hindu.