Boston – On Monday, the Trump administration filed a brief with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to overturn a temporary restraining order that prevents the United States Postal Service (USPS) from implementing a new rule aimed at tightening mail‑in voting requirements before the November congressional elections.
Legal fight over the USPS rule
The Justice Department argues that the district court’s order, issued at the request of Democratic‑led states and voting‑rights groups, was “gravely mistaken” and based on an unfounded premise that the USPS intends to seize control of federal elections. The administration contends that the rule’s improvements and modernizations of USPS infrastructure for handling sensitive election mail are fully consistent with the agency’s statutory and constitutional authority.
What the rule requires
Under the new regulation, states must provide the USPS with lists of voters who will receive mail ballots, and every outbound and return ballot envelope must carry a unique barcode. The USPS would then be authorized to refuse delivery of ballots that do not meet the new standards or that are linked to voters not appearing on the state‑provided lists.
Judicial background
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued the restraining order on Thursday, concluding that the rule risked disenfranchising voters and likely violated the Constitution, which gives states the authority to run elections. Talwani declined to pause the order on Monday, leaving it in place for 14 days while she considers a longer‑term injunction at a hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Potential next steps
If the 1st Circuit declines to lift the order, the administration said it could ask the conservative‑majority Supreme Court for intervention. The high court recently lifted an earlier injunction that had blocked the USPS from moving forward with the rule.
Context and political backdrop
The rule stems from an executive order signed by President Trump in March, fulfilling his long‑standing call for tighter mail‑in voting standards and responding to false claims that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. All 50 states allow some form of mail‑in voting; 29 permit voters to request a ballot without providing a reason, and eight conduct elections entirely by mail. North Carolina is slated to become the first state to mail out ballots for the November election.
The dispute highlights the ongoing battle between the Trump administration’s efforts to strengthen election integrity and voting‑rights groups’ concerns about voter access.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
