by WorldTribune Staff, August 27, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani has lifted her nationwide block on President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting after the Supreme Court overruled her previous injunctions.
Judge Indira Talwani
The judge’s ruling means the administration can now move forward and implement a Postal Service rule published late Friday that requires states to follow a uniform envelope style for mail ballots and to give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive the ballots.
The court ruled that Talwani erred by blocking the Postal Service rules before the states had shown they would suffer sufficient injury.
The high court set aside an earlier block Talwani had placed on the policy across multiple states.
On Tuesday, Talwani cancelled her remaining nationwide injunction, stating in a nine-page order that she was “compelled” to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Talwani issued her initial block after the League of Women Voters challenged proposed Postal Service rules that said states had to provide a list of voters who were eligible to receive mail-in ballots and had to get pre-approval for their ballot designs.
On Aug. 21, a few days before the Supreme Court decision came down, the Postal Service issued finalized rules for executing Trump’s directive.
That led Talwani to declare that, by finalizing the rules, the Postal Service violated her order in the League of Women Voters case, since the Supreme Court, in overturning her ruling, had addressed only the states’ lawsuit.
Postal Service officials said finalizing the rules didn’t violate Talwani’s order, because the agency promised not to implement it for the 2026 election unless the court orders were lifted.
The League of Women Voters asked Talwani to enforce her own order by declaring that the new Postal Service policy “has no force or effect with respect to any federal election on or before November 3, 2026.”
Talwani declined to make such a declaration or to penalize the government.
Since the rules are finalized, she said, the plaintiffs can amend their lawsuit and file again. Some two dozen Democrat-states did just that, meaning the issue could land before the Supreme Court again before the pivotal contests for control of Congress. The first mailed ballots are set to be sent out next week.
