A second federal judge just torched another piece of Donald Trump’s plan to choke off mail voting before the midterms — and this one didn’t mince words.
According to a report from The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington, D.C., dropped a preliminary injunction late Sunday night blocking the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing Trump’s new mail-ballot rule, which the agency issued last month under an executive order Trump signed earlier this year. Election officials have warned there’s no way to roll out the changes this close to a general election, which postal workers themselves called a potential “disaster.”
But Nichols wasn’t buying the administration’s line.
“Plaintiffs have demonstrated that, absent an injunction, there is an increased risk that a significant number of otherwise appropriate absentee or mail-in ballots will ultimately not be counted in the upcoming elections,” he wrote. “The public has a strong interest in ensuring that doesn’t happen.”
It marked a reversal for Nichols, who tossed a similar request back in May, ruling the case was filed too early and echoing the same logic the Supreme Court used weeks ago when it let a Boston judge’s injunction lapse, the report noted. That Boston case, before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, is now sitting before the Supreme Court on the administration’s appeal after months of legal whiplash.
According to AP, “The regulations would require all ballot envelope designs to be pre-approved by the Postal Service and that states upload the identities of those who are to receive them into a still-inactive online portal. Mail ballots already are being sent out in at least three states — Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin — and more states are preparing to distribute mail ballots this week.”
The Supreme Court can still step in and let Trump’s rule take effect.
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