When a judge appointed by Barack Obama for a second time blocked a major election integrity plan, one that would crack down on foreigners voting in American elections, President Donald Trump returned to the Supreme Court.
A report at Courthousenews said he had “renewed” a request to restrict mail-in ballots for this November’s elections to Americans.
The judge, Indira Talwani, earlier had blocked a Postal Service plan that would restrict mail-in ballots to American citizens, but had to relent when her agenda was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Then she reimposed her original block, demanding that the USPS not implement its ballot security plan for 14 days, and that prompted the Trump administration to return to the Supreme Court.
Solicitor General John Sauer asked the justices to intervene, describing the the lower court’s continued prejudgment of the rule as baseless and a serious setback to the president’s goals.
“If the Postal Service cannot implement its rule in a mandatory manner, the harms to voter integrity with respect to ballots mailed while the court’s order is in place cannot be undone even if the government later prevails on the merits of its appeal,” the government’s argument explained.
Trump’s original executive order provided for the creation of lists of eligible voters in each state. Then USPS then was instructed to deliver mail ballots only to those voters.
States also would be required to have secure envelopes with unique tracking barcodes and federal funding could be withhold if states refused.
Democrat states sued, claiming the changes would bring chaos.
The Trump administration has appealed Judge Talwani’s TRO temporarily blocking the new USPS mail-ballot rules for the midterms. https://t.co/us9lupjCpw pic.twitter.com/zGD39kEqMl
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) August 28, 2026
An Obama-appointed federal judge is being called an “activist” after blocking new USPS mail-ballot tracking requirements for a second time — and election integrity advocates say the strategy is working.
Judge Indira Talwani issued a 14-day temporary restraining order last week… pic.twitter.com/EMgisvo364
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) September 2, 2026
That resulted in Talwani’s original block on election security, a move that failed when the Supreme Court found the states’ challenge came too early.
Then the USPS published its rule regarding ballot envelopes and Democrats sued again, with Talwani granting their wish to halt the program a second time.
The Trump appeal explained, “Without relief, the court’s order will irreparably harm the federal government and the public by barring implementation of an important federal policy to protect the mails from being used to commit voter fraud, with respect to countless ballots that will be mailed during further proceedings and cannot be retrieved.”
The administration pointed out that states have authority to regulate the manner of elections, but “they cannot choose to use the federal mails to carry out their elections but then insist that their election-related mail is somehow exempt from the Postal Service’s rulemaking authority, conferred by Congress, to regulate envelope design and addressee information.”
“Neither the statutes nor the Constitution contains or compels any such carveout from this type of core regulation of the use of federal mails.”
An unidentified person had complained that the USPS approach to security was “risky and haphazard.”
