First Circuit rejects bid to lift injunction blocking USPS rule for mail-in voting

The appeals ruling keeps in place a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Postal Service from implementing part of Trump's executive order, regulating mail voting, for the upcoming Nov. 3 midterm elections.(CN) — A First Circuit panel denied the Trump administration’s request Thursday to lift a pause on enforcement of changes to mail-in voting restrictions ahead of the midterm elections.President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that would create lists of eligible voters in each state and instruct the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to verified voters. Under the “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” order, states would be required to update mail ballots with secure envelopes featuring unique tracking barcodes. The federal government could withhold funding from states and localities that do not comply.In a nine-page opinion, the three-judge First Circuit panel ruled the Trump administration failed to demonstrate on appeal that the new U.S. Postal Service rule would not sow “chaos and widespread voter disenfranchisement” in the lead-up to the November midterms if implemented, as a lower court held earlier this month.“Appellants have not shown that the District Court abused its discretion in determining that any harm to them would be substantially outweighed by the injury that would be caused to appellees and to the public interest, including the millions of Americans who vote by mail, were the final rule to take effect for the Nov. 3 election,” the panel wrote.The panel pointed to the lower court ruling from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who enumerated in her Sept. 4 opinion the practical harms and significant risks of disenfranchisement posed by hastily implementing the mail-in voting rule.“There is no countervailing record evidence disputing the District Court’s findings on these points,” the First Circuit wrote Thursday, affirming Talwani’s conclusions. “Indeed, appellants have not even seriously challenged this aspect of the District Court’s ruling, much less demonstrated why it is clearly erroneous.”Joe Biden-appointed U.S. Circuit Judges Gustavo Gelpí, Julie Rikelman and Seth Aframe filled the three-judge panel.The coalition of co-plaintiffs, led by League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, applauded the ruling, saying it “rightly keeps in place an order blocking USPS from enforcing its disruptive and disenfranchising rule through the November election and preserves the current system, which has worked safely, securely, and reliably for decades.”“The U.S. Postal Service is not the gatekeeper for mail ballots,” the groups and their lawyers said in a joint statement. “It does not have that authority. And it cannot usurp election authority from the states and Congress.”Representatives for the Trump administration and the co-defendant agencies did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.On March 31, Trump ordered the postmaster general to propose measures to “protect the integrity of the mail” in federal elections, including requirements that state and local officials use only envelopes designed with specific barcodes and markings.In the order, Trump ordered USPS not to transmit a voter’s mail-in or absentee ballots unless their name is on a “state citizenship list.”Voting rights groups merged efforts with a challenge by 23 individual states and the District of Columbia — which in June won a block on key aspects of the executive order. Talwani wrote then, “The Constitution does not grant the president any specific powers over elections.”Last month, the plaintiffs filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the new rule from going into effect. The motion asserts the final rule is illegal and unconstitutional and, if implemented, would cause disenfranchisement and voter confusion.The Trump administration has also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the injunction. Solicitor General John Sauer called for the justices to intervene, claiming the lower court’s continued prejudgment of the rule was baseless and dealt a serious setback to the president’s goals.A ruling from the high court is expected soon.Earlier this month, a whistleblower report claimed the USPS undertook a “risky and haphazard” approach to implementing Trump’s crackdown on mail-in voting. According to the report, the administration demanded an impossible timeframe for developing a ballot screening tool, forcing the agency to drop standard testing, troubleshooting and debugging processes.USPS plans to use the so-called “Federal Ballot Mail Portal” to decide whether certain ballots from state officials can be mailed to voters, according to the report. The whistleblower also claimed the agency continued work on the screening tool even after a federal judge blocked the executive order.Last night during a Republican midterm convention in Texas, Trump said he plans to give every American adult a $5,000 “dividend,” if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm.The proposal, which could cost at least $1 trillion, would exceed the expansive $900 billion Covid-19 stimulus package Trump issued during his first term.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads