Judge broadens block on Trump mail-in voting order

A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday barred the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out a key part of President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting anywhere in the country, expanding an earlier ruling that applied only to 23 mostly Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s order blocks USPS from moving ahead with directives that would require states to provide lists of eligible voters and adopt new balloting procedures before the mail agency would deliver absentee ballots. If states did not comply, USPS would have refused to deliver the ballots, The Guardian reported. The plaintiffs argued the Postal Service had no legal basis for such a refusal.

The ruling comes as the Supreme Court has yet to act on an earlier decision by Talwani, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama. In June, she blocked implementation of the order in the 23 states and Washington, D.C., that had sued over it. Voting rights groups then asked her to broaden the injunction nationwide.

Talwani found that those groups are likely to prove in their lawsuit that Trump’s order exceeds a president’s authority under the Constitution. She also found that the order is causing confusion among voters, NPR reported.

Trump’s order directs USPS to compile lists of eligible voters from states and deliver absentee ballots only to people on those lists. The president has defended the measure as a way to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens, which many studies have concluded is extremely uncommon.

The order targets mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. Tuesday’s ruling prevents the Postal Service from completing implementation of the challenged requirements in every state while the litigation continues.