Updated on: August 27, 2026 / 10:31 PM EDT
/ CBS News
Washington — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing its new requirements for mail voting for the November midterm elections.
The order from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani is the latest development in the legal battle over President Trump's efforts to tighten the rules for mail voting ahead of the November elections. That fight escalated this week, after the Supreme Court halted a decision in a different case that had blocked the Trump administration from implementing provisions of an executive order that aims to restrict mail voting.
On the heels of that ruling from the nation's highest court, a group of two dozen states and the District of Columbia filed a new lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block the new rule from the Postal Service, published last week, that regulates mail voting for the upcoming federal elections. A coalition of voting rights groups also challenged the new requirements, which were issued in response to Mr. Trump's executive order.
The states and voting rights groups argued that Congress has not given the Postal Service the authority to set the rules for federal elections or mail voting. Instead, the Constitution gives states the power to administer elections, the challengers said.
For 14 days, Talwani agreed to halt enforcement of several key provisions of the Postal Service's rule for the upcoming elections, which will determine which party controls the House and Senate.
"Based on the record presently before the court, Plaintiff States face irreparable harm where they are required to comply with a likely unconstitutional regulation for which compliance is practically impossible as to the 2026 midterm elections, now little more than two months away," Talwani wrote in her 11-page order. "Most Plaintiff States have already ordered their mail ballots, and some are required by state law to send them to eligible voters as early as next week."
The states, she continued, "have neither time nor funds to design new mail ballots, seek approval of the new designs, order production of mail ballots, update their own election management systems, train election officials to use the USPS portal, and upload citizen data to the portal, all before the midterms."
Talwani said Congress did not delegate authority to the Postal Service to regulate election mail. She found that the states are likely to succeed on the merits of their arguments that the agency lacked authority to issue the rule, which the judge said is likely unconstitutional.
"If Plaintiff States are unable to comply with the Final Rule, an outcome that seems unavoidable given the timeframe, they will violate their obligations under the Constitution and State laws to administer elections," the Boston-based federal judge wrote.
The Justice Department is likely to appeal the decision, and the challenge to the new restrictions for mail voting could land before the Supreme Court.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was among the 24 attorneys general suing, criticized the new regulations in response to Talwani's order.
"This rule is a clear attempt by the federal government to interfere in elections it has no power to control," she said in a statement. "Today, a federal court halted it before this administration could wreak havoc on our elections. "
The dispute arose out of an executive order Mr. Trump signed in March that sought to restrict mail voting, which the president frequently claims leads to widespread fraud, though he has not put forth evidence in support of his claims.
The order directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile "State Citizenship Lists" of confirmed U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote and instructs the attorney general to prioritize investigations and prosecutions against election officials who issue ballots of people ineligible to vote.
