Second federal judge blocked USPS mail-ballot rule before SCOTUS denied stay
UPDATED · Tue. ~9:15 a.m. EDT
U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington issued a preliminary injunction late Sunday blocking the Postal Service from enforcing its Aug. 21 Ballot Mail for Federal Elections final rule — including new envelope-design requirements and a federal voter portal — adding a second nationwide lower-court block alongside Judge Indira Talwani’s Boston injunction. On Monday night the Supreme Court denied the Justice Department’s stay application (No. 26A305) of Talwani’s PI, leaving the rule blocked for the midterms (see lead: scotus-usps-mail-ballot-denied).
Mail-ballot processing. File photograph; not from Sunday’s D.C. ruling.
Mail-ballot processing · file
Center-left view
Bloomberg Law’s Monday write-through, The Hill’s court-battles report, and UPI’s second-judge coverage cast Nichols’s Sunday PI as another midterm-season setback for Trump’s mail-voting overhaul: a Trump-appointed judge concluding no statute authorizes the portal and voter-list conditions, noting the short window before Nov. 3 — later reinforced when SCOTUS denied the stay of Talwani’s Boston block.
Sources: Bloomberg Law · The Hill · UPI
Center-right view
The Washington Examiner’s Monday Nichols wrap, Just the News’s court brief, and the DOJ stay application (denied Monday night in No. 26A305) framed the D.C. injunction as one more lower-court obstacle while Solicitor General Sauer argued the Postal Service’s barcode and recipient-list rules are modest anti-fraud mail regulation — and that irreparable harm follows if injunctions lock in status quo as more states begin mailing ballots.
Sources: Washington Examiner · Just the News · DOJ PI stay application