Trump admin asks appeals court to revive anti-voting USPS mail ballot rule

The Trump administration asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals Monday to pause a federal judge’s temporary block on key parts of the U.S. Postal Service’s final mail ballot rule, arguing that the lower court’s 14-day order should be treated like an appealable preliminary injunction.

The “emergency” motion comes hours after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani refused to pause her own temporary restraining order (TRO), which blocked USPS from enforcing the mandatory provisions of its final rule for elections on or before Nov. 3.

DOJ argues that the order is immediately appealable because, despite being labeled a TRO, it has the “practical effect” of an injunction.

The administration says some states are set to begin sending ballots while the 14-day order remains in place, including North Carolina on Sept. 4 and Alabama on Sept. 9.

“Here, circumstances counsel in favor of construing the District Court’s order as an appealable preliminary injunction,” DOJ wrote.

Talwani last week temporarily blocked USPS from enforcing provisions requiring mandatory ballot-envelope standards, return-envelope standards, portal registration, voter enrollment through a USPS portal and ballot-mail verification requirements for the 2026 midterms.

The judge found that voting rights groups and Democratic-led states were likely to succeed on claims that USPS lacked authority to issue the rule, that the rule unconstitutionally imposes requirements on states and that it unlawfully blocks noncompliant state and local officials from using USPS to mail ballots.

But DOJ told the First Circuit that Talwani’s ruling was wrong, arguing that the final rule is “a regulation of the U.S. mail, and a modest one at that — not a federal takeover of election administration by the Postal Service.”

The administration argues the rule merely imposes envelope-design and data-reporting standards on states that choose to send ballots through the mail. DOJ says states, not USPS, decide who receives mail ballots and that the Postal Service “will not determine voter eligibility, ballot content, mailing or receipt deadlines, or ballot-counting procedures.”

DOJ also claims the government will suffer irreparable harm if the TRO remains in place because appellate review would come too late for ballots mailed during the next two weeks. The administration asked the First Circuit to issue an immediate administrative stay while it considers the emergency motion.