Judge reinstates pause on Trump order limiting mail ballots

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a two-week restraining order Thursday blocking a Trump administration Postal Service rule restricting mail voting, days after the Supreme Court let the administration proceed on procedural grounds. Talwani said the government produced no evidence of the fraud the rule claims to address, while plaintiffs showed voters would be disenfranchised before the November midterms.

The Supreme Court's ruling Monday held that two dozen Democratic state officials sued too early, over an executive order not yet codified — but the Postal Service had quietly published a final rule the business day before that ruling came down. States and voting rights groups refiled immediately once the final rule existed.

The rule would require new ballot-envelope standards, force states to hand over voter lists for federal citizenship cross-checks, and bar USPS from handling ballots for anyone not confirmed eligible through that process. All fifty states allow some form of mail voting, and Trump has long asserted mail fraud is rampant without producing evidence, a gap the judge noted explicitly.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.