Justice Department immediately asks First Circuit to revive anti-mail voting order halted by judge

The Department of Justice filed an appeal to the First Circuit Friday as it tries to put President Donald Trump’s anti-mail voting executive order into effect before Election Day.

The appeal came shortly after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a new rule that would impose restrictions on a voting method used by one-third of Americans in the 2024 election.

Talwani’s order followed a high-stakes hearing in Boston, where she heard arguments in two lawsuits seeking to bar Trump’s order from going into effect before the midterm elections, one from 24 Democratic attorneys general and the other from a coalition of voting rights groups.

“In balancing the harms based on the record before the court, the court finds, on one side, that immediate implementation of the Final Rule issued less than seventy days before the November 2026 election threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail, and, on the other side, that the record includes no evidence relating to fraudulent mail voting to support the rushed implementation of the Final Rule,” Talwani wrote.

But in Thursday’s hearing, Talwani anticipated the appeal and acknowledged her action isn’t the “final word” on the matter.

The fight has already been to the Supreme Court, where the justices overturned Talwani’s prior order halting the voting rule. The justices said the Democratic states had sued before the Trump administration had finalized the mail voting rule, which has since been completed and issued. However, the Supreme Court at that time did not address whether Trump’s order or the rule were legal, saying instead, “time will tell.”

Election officials warn it is practically impossible to comply with the changes being demanded by the Postal Service, and many describe being in the dark as to what comes next amid the ongoing litigation.

Adding urgency, this week a whistleblower report to Congress detailed a rushed, secretive process by USPS to put the president’s demands into action. The whistleblower warned of “catastrophic failure” that could “derail the midterm elections.”

At stake is a voting practice used by 47 million Americans in 2024. Trump himself even voted by mail just last month in Florida’s Republican primary. The first mail ballots of the 2026 midterms head to some voters Friday, with many other states following suit before the end of September.