Federal Court Blocks USPS Rule That Would Have Hindered Mail Voting
September 14, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, in a victory for voters, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia blocked a new United States Postal Service rule that, as dictated by an executive order issued by the president in March, would have given the executive branch unprecedented control over mail voting and injected chaos and confusion into the 2026 midterm elections for voters and election administrators alike.
As the court ruled yesterday, the Postal Service’s attempt to singlehandedly overhaul mail voting processes for the entire nation exceeds its legal authority and cannot be enforced for the 2026 midterm elections.
The new rule, which has now been enjoined by multiple courts, would have mandated burdensome new technical requirements for every state and local election official that sends ballots to voters through the U.S. mail, and would have given the Postal Service the power to refuse to send ballot mail to voters if states failed to comply with the rule’s requirements.
As our expert witness Tammy Patrick explained in her declaration to the court, this “unprecedented” rule would have been “virtually impossible” for election officials to implement in time for the November general election.
That’s why Campaign Legal Center and Democracy Defenders Fund, on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Secure Families Initiative, Arizona Students’ Association, the city of Madison, Wisconsin, and Travis County, Texas, asked the court to prevent this rule from going into effect.
An appeal of a separate preliminary injunction enjoining implementation of the Postal Service rule, issued by the District Court for the District of Massachusetts, is currently pending and awaiting decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The injunction here issued by the D.C. District Court, in a decision by a judge appointed by President Trump during his first term, underscores how unlawful the rule is.
“This decision is yet another court reinforcing that the president does not have the power to rewrite election rules by executive order,” said Pooja Chaudhuri, senior counsel and deputy legal director at Democracy Defenders Fund. “Even a Trump-appointed judge is accepting this and that forcing states and election officials to make sweeping changes while voting has already started would create widespread confusion and prevent eligible voters from having their ballots counted. We are hopeful that the courts will continue to uphold the U.S. Constitution and prevent this desperate attempt to seize power and interfere in the election.”
“Yesterday’s ruling is a win for the millions of Americans who will cast their ballots by mail this election cycle. The court’s ruling blocking this rule is yet another affirmation that the president’s attempts to tamper with and sow doubt in our electoral process will fail,” said Anna Baldwin, director of voting rights litigation at Campaign Legal Center. “We are proud to have achieved this important victory underscoring that Congress has never given USPS the authority to require key provisions of the mail voting rules that it recently unveiled, further safeguarding our democracy and preserving the effectiveness and reliability of mail voting.”
“The federal government tried to make Latino voters’ access to their ballots depend on whether state and local election officials could satisfy a new and last-minute federal mandate,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC. “Voters do not design ballot envelopes, operate election databases or decide how elections are administered. Denying them ballots over any of those things turns common sense on its head. This ruling protects the communities we serve from being punished for decisions entirely outside their control.”
Read the ruling here.
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Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.
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