Judge Lifts Last Block on Trump Mail-Voting Order

The last court order standing between President Trump's mail-voting executive order and the November midterms came down Wednesday — lifted by the same judge who had imposed it, and who used the order doing it to call the policy "likely unconstitutional."

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston agreed to lift her injunction barring the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out the order for November's elections, according to the Associated Press, whose account was published by the Los Angeles Times. She wrote that she was "compelled" to do so after the Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled Monday that a similar injunction she granted in a separate case was premature. Talwani nevertheless said the executive order could unleash "chaos" and referred to it as "likely unconstitutional."

This is not a ruling that the order is lawful. The Supreme Court decided Monday that the states' first lawsuit was filed too early — it did not say Trump's order was legal, AP reports. Talwani's Wednesday order removes the block; it does not resolve the constitutional question. MSNBC described it as the lifting of the second injunction, "the last impediment to the executive order," while ABC News reported the judge had lifted all blocks on implementation. NTD reported Talwani said she was bound by the Supreme Court's ruling.

What the administration can now do

The administration can move forward with a Postal Service rule published late Friday, AP reports. It requires states to follow a uniform envelope style for mail ballots and to hand the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them. The first mailed ballots are set to go out next week.

The states sued again the same day

About two dozen Democratically controlled states filed a new lawsuit against the Postal Service on Wednesday, AP reports, with 25 Democratic attorneys general signing on. Their argument is timing: election officials say the rule cannot be implemented before the first wave of mail ballots ships next week.