{"id":223209,"date":"2026-09-05T21:56:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T21:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-extends-block-on-trump-order-to-restrict-mail-in-voting-us-voting-rights-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T21:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T21:56:30","slug":"us-judge-extends-block-on-trump-order-to-restrict-mail-in-voting-us-voting-rights-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-extends-block-on-trump-order-to-restrict-mail-in-voting-us-voting-rights-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US judge extends block on Trump order to restrict mail-in voting | US voting rights &#8211; The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Indira Talwani\u2019s ruling presents major setback for president as first states begin to send out mail ballots for midterms<br \/>A federal judge on Friday again blocked Donald Trump\u2019s executive order to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting, the latest in a legal back-and-forth playing out less than two months before election day.<br \/>US district court judge Indira Talwani initially placed a temporary order blocking the president\u2019s mandate and has now extended that prohibition with a stronger preliminary injunction. The ruling comes hours after North Carolina became <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/sep\/04\/north-carolina-mail-in-ballots-midterms\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">the first state<\/a> to start sending out mail-in ballots for the 3 November midterm elections.<br \/>Talwani referred to the tight timeline in her ruling.<br \/>\u201cPlaintiff States are required under state law to mail millions of ballots to voters on a prescribed timeframe. As detailed below, they are unable to pivot this late in the election cycle, nearly guaranteeing significant disenfranchisement for eligible voters,\u201d the judge <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/system\/files\/attachments\/press-docs\/ecf-285-order-granting-pi.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">wrote<\/a> in her ruling.<br \/>Trump signed an executive order in March that would create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters, compelling the US Postal Service (USPS) to work with states to establish lists of mail-in voters before elections. The result would mean a limited ballot delivery only to voters on those lists.<br \/>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/trump-administration\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Trump administration<\/a> had already appealed against her temporary block to the supreme court, and it appeared the justices were likely to have a final say on the matter. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the administration quickly appealed Friday\u2019s ruling.<br \/>The USPS has said in <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.mad.305406\/gov.uscourts.mad.305406.150.1.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">recent court filings<\/a> that the technology needed to administer the order isn\u2019t even available. Earlier this week, a USPS whistleblower came forward and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blumenthal.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/2026-08-31_final_letter-disclosure.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">warned<\/a> of \u201cpotentially catastrophic problems\u201d if the agency were to try to carry out the order.<br \/>After Trump signed the order, a coalition of 24 state attorneys general sued the USPS to challenge the rule. They also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction as litigation was ongoing. Oral argument on the coalition\u2019s request for a preliminary injunction was held on Thursday.<br \/>\u201cWe\u2019ve now secured longer-term relief that will keep the USPS changes blocked while our case moves forward,\u201d said Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, who co-led the state coalition. \u201cWe will continue to take all steps to stop the Trump Administration from trampling on voting rights and restricting mail voting.\u201d<br \/>The order allows states to voluntarily use the new system. To date, not a single state has announced that it will do so.<br \/>A coalition of voter service and civic groups, plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the lawsuit, issued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclum.org\/press-releases\/federal-court-blocks-u-s-postal-service-from-interfering-with-mail-ballots-in-november-election\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">a statement<\/a>: \u201cToday\u2019s ruling makes it crystal clear: The US Postal Service must deliver all election mail. USPS has no authority in the Constitution or federal law over how states administer mail voting. And the President cannot order the Postal Service to create a disruptive new bureaucracy that will throw the election into chaos and disenfranchise untold numbers of voters.\u201d<br \/>Trump has long sought to limit mail voting, even though he himself often uses that method to cast his own ballot. He has falsely blamed mail balloting for his 2020 election loss, spreading baseless claims of fraud, but has so far been unable to change the longstanding voting procedure.<br \/>An initial executive order Trump issued last year to change election rules, including a requirement for people to show documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, was halted by federal judges. They ruled that the constitution gives states and, in some cases, Congress the power to set voting procedures, not the president.<br \/>After Trump issued his mail voting executive order in March, Democrats and voting rights groups filed several lawsuits. Two ended up before Talwani, who placed an initial hold on the order in June, prohibiting its implementation until after November.<br \/>But the supreme court late last month overturned that order. Its conservative majority pointedly did not say Trump\u2019s move was legal but found the lawsuits were filed prematurely before the US Postal Service issued its rule on how it would implement the order. The rule came out just before the supreme court released its ruling, and the plaintiffs refiled their suits.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMigwFBVV95cUxQYmVCaEhxcGlxaGV2c3diTjRnNWxOOEhic3I4R3E3UmdHVkE1RVRiY0N2cFd3SmZfZXlsWWN4Um4xai0yNy16dlB0VnNTOWwzbG9QMDlBZEpGX1JVSVU4WlZPQzI3NldzY1NJNWxOcmY4bEdjZnNSckN6N2lOS0t3WENGYw?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indira Talwani\u2019s ruling presents major setback for president as first states begin to send out mail ballots for midtermsA federal judge on Friday again blocked Donald Trump\u2019s executive order to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting, the latest in a legal back-and-forth playing out less than two months before election day.US district court judge Indira [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}