A U.S. federal judge in Boston rebuked the United States Postal Service on Tuesday for implementing a mail-in voting rule she said violated a prior court order, though she declined to suspend it immediately as the agency stated it could not comply while her injunction remained in place.
Judge Indira Talwani, of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, ruled that the USPS had engaged in what she described as "feigned compliance" with her earlier directives. The agency had issued a final rule last Friday requiring states to provide lists of voters who received mail-in ballots and to apply unique barcodes to ballot shipping and return envelopes. The judge had previously ordered the USPS not to proceed with the plan.
The Supreme Court intervened on Monday, lifting one of two injunctions previously imposed by Judge Talwani. The high court, in a 6-3 conservative majority decision, found that the challenge brought by 23 mostly Democratic-led states was premature, stating that courts assess definitive rules rather than proposed or internal guidelines. The decision did not address the merits of the mail-in voting requirements.
Mail-in voting remains widely used in the United States, with tens of millions of voters relying on the method. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March targeting mail-in voting, though the U.S. Constitution assigns election administration to individual states. Voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters, have criticized the USPS rule as an attempt to discourage mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections, which are less than three months away.
Celina Stewart, president of the League of Women Voters, stated that the president had not been granted authority he did not possess and that Americans should not be discouraged from using a secure and widely trusted voting method due to misleading claims. Separate legal challenges against the USPS rule are ongoing, including a planned lawsuit by California and the Democratic Party.
