A federal judge in Boston issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on Tuesday barring the U.S. Postal Service and other federal officials from implementing key mail-voting provisions in President Donald Trump's March executive order. The decision applies to the November 3, 2026 midterm elections and any earlier federal election, extending protection beyond the 23 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia covered by an earlier judgment.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled in a case brought by the League of Women Voters and other voting-rights groups. The order sought to involve the Postal Service in verifying who could receive and return a mail ballot, while directing federal agencies to build citizenship-based voter lists. Talwani concluded that the executive branch lacks authority to regulate elections and said the administration had not defended the order's constitutionality in this case.
The injunction prevents federal officials from refusing to transmit mail-in or absentee ballots and from completing regulations required by the executive order for this election cycle. It still permits nonbinding Postal Service guidance on ballot envelopes and federally provided eligibility assistance when states request it under powers granted by Congress. Axios reported that the nationwide ruling freezes the central postal component in every state, rather than only in the jurisdictions involved in the first lawsuit.
Talwani cited the proximity of the midterms, now less than 90 days away, and found that changing election rules so close to voting risked confusion, operational disruption and declining public trust. The March order would have required coordination among states, federal databases and postal operations. Election administrators and voting-rights plaintiffs argued that incomplete federal lists could exclude eligible citizens and interfere with systems that states already operate.
The White House said the administration would continue lawfully pursuing the election-security agenda on which Trump campaigned. It also pointed to his call for Congress to pass the stalled SAVE America Act, which would impose new federal voting requirements. The House has passed that legislation, but it has stalled in the Senate. Voting-rights groups welcomed the injunction as a defense of voters and the constitutional division of election authority.
The ruling adds another obstacle as the administration asks the Supreme Court to suspend earlier decisions blocking the executive order. A federal appeals court previously left Talwani's June injunction in place for the states that sued, while a separate Washington case found an injunction premature. The nationwide order will remain central to the legal fight over mail voting unless a higher court narrows or lifts it before ballots are distributed.
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