NPR: An executive order by President Trump that seeks to enlist the U.S. Postal Service to limit voting by mail has hit legal hurdles.
On June 25, a Boston-based judge blocked key parts of the order that, at least so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s midterm primary elections.
That ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, applies to this fall’s general election and earlier races in nearly two dozen mainly Democratic-led states, plus Washington, D.C., that filed one of the five lawsuits against Trump’s order.
And on Wednesday, another federal judge blocked election mail rules that USPS proposed in response to Trump’s order. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, a nominee of former President Bill Clinton in Washington, D.C., found that the proposal violates the Postal Service’s 2021 settlement agreement with the NAACP, which requires USPS “to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of election mail” for every national race through 2028.
“This ruling is a critical step in protecting the rights of voters who rely on the timely delivery of mail-in ballots to participate in our democracy,” said Quiana-Joy Ochiagha, the NAACP’s assistant general counsel, in a statement after Sullivan’s ruling. “This decision makes clear that access to the ballot cannot be tied to arbitrary requirements.”
The legal fight, however, is not over. Also on Wednesday, the Trump administration started the process for appealing Talwani’s ruling, as a separate appeal of an earlier ruling by another federal judge moves forward in a similar set of lawsuits based in Washington, D.C. Justice Department attorneys are asking Talwani to pause the ruling by July 6.
Read more: Judges block key parts of Trump’s mail-in voting order : NPR