A federal judge in Boston on Friday blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing a new Trump-administration rule requiring state election officials to get USPS sign-off before mailing out ballots, ruling the policy was "likely unlawful and unconstitutional" just weeks before the November midterms.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee sitting in the District of Massachusetts, issued a preliminary injunction after a Thursday hearing, siding with roughly two dozen Democratic-led states and voting-rights groups who argued the rule would create chaos on an impossible timeline.

An Order Signed Barely Five Months Ago

The USPS rule stemmed from an executive order Trump signed March 31, 2026, titled "Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections," which required every mail ballot to carry a unique barcode tied to a state-submitted voter list — with the Postal Service instructed to deliver only ballots matching that list. Talwani found the timeline for compliance, "issued less than seventy days before the November 2026 election," made voter disenfranchisement "practically inevitable," and noted the administration had produced no evidentiary record of mail-ballot fraud to justify the change.

"IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FINAL RULE ... THREATENS DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF MILLIONS."

The ruling lands in the middle of an already-underway mail-ballot season: North Carolina had begun mailing ballots to voters on Friday even as the legal fight played out, and state Attorney General Jeff Jackson warned of potential election "chaos" if the Supreme Court ultimately reverses the block.

Headed to the Supreme Court

The Justice Department filed notice Friday that it will appeal Talwani's ruling to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The administration has also separately asked the Supreme Court to overturn an earlier, related order from the same judge — a request the high court could act on within days, setting up a real possibility that the rules get reinstated mid-mailing if the justices side with the White House.

For now, states can continue mailing ballots under their existing procedures while the appeals play out, but election officials in both parties are bracing for the process to change again before Election Day, November 3.