A federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked proposed restrictions on mail-in voting Wednesday, handing the Trump administration another legal defeat in its effort to reshape how Americans vote.
District Judge Emmet Sullivan sided with the NAACP, a civil rights organization, in its case against the U.S. Postal Service. According to Al Jazeera, Sullivan found that the restrictions would likely violate a 2021 settlement requiring expedited handling for mail-in ballots. He granted the NAACP's motion to enforce compliance with that settlement.
The case centers on a rule the Postal Service put forward in May. Under that rule, states would be required to provide lists of absentee and mail-in voters. Ballots that did not conform to those lists would be returned. The proposed rule would also require a new envelope design for mail-in ballots, governing logos and barcode placements. Failure to comply would result in the Postal Service refusing to deliver the ballots.
The NAACP argued that the proposal conflicted with the 2021 legal settlement, which forces Postal Service officials to take extraordinary measures to ensure timely delivery of ballot mail.
In his ruling, Sullivan quoted the settlement directly. It "stipulated that the Postal Service agreed 'to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of election mail'," he wrote.
Sullivan also noted the real-world effects already underway.
"NAACP has plausibly suggested — and the Postal Service has not disputed — that the Proposed Rule is already having a 'real impact on present day affairs'," Sullivan wrote.
The ruling arrives less than five months before the November 3 midterm elections, which will determine whether Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress. Trump has publicly expressed concern about the possibility of a third impeachment if Democrats flip the legislature.
Trump signed an executive order in March called "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections," directing the Department of Justice to take action against states that fail to comply with certain standards for mail-in ballots. The Postal Service's proposed rule followed from that order.
Elections in the United States are administered by state and local officials, as established in the Constitution.
