Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A US federal judge has blocked key parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to create a federal voter list and involve the US Postal Service directly in election operations in a way that would limit mail voting. The ruling is the latest setback for the Trump administration as it tries to revive the order before the November 3, 2026 midterm elections.
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US District Judge Indira Talwani said there was a ‘critical need for an injunction’ with less than 90 days left before the polls. In a separate case, she had already halted the order and, on June 25, granted summary judgment to Democratic state attorneys general, stopping the core parts of Trump’s order from taking effect.
In the latest lawsuit, Talwani, who was nominated by Barack Obama, sided with the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups. Her preliminary injunction barred the Postal Service from taking any steps to implement the order for this year’s midterm elections. She said the administration had so far declined to defend the constitutionality of the executive order, and wrote: ‘The executive branch has no authority to regulate elections.’
The plaintiffs in the two Boston lawsuits argued that the order was unconstitutional because states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. The League of Women Voters also argued that Trump did not have the authority to issue the order and that the US Postal Service and other defendants did not have the authority to carry it out. In late July, the Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court to halt lower court decisions that had blocked the sweeping changes in nearly half the country.
In motions seeking dismissal of the lawsuits, the administration argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing, that the cases were premature, and that they had no legal basis under the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations. Stephen Pezzi, a lawyer for the administration, said the harms cited by the plaintiffs were subjective because the voting list could change before it was finalised. He also said no one would be prosecuted for violating the order.
Trump’s order, the second one aimed at elections during his second term, came as he continued to suggest there was widespread voting by noncitizens. Alongside the executive orders, he has been pushing legislation in the Republican-controlled Congress to create a proof-of-citizenship requirement. The SAVE America Act has passed the House but has stalled in the Senate. Trump issued the order in March after a bill he backed to overhaul voting stalled in Congress.
Under the order, the federal government would have created a list of eligible voters and the Postal Service would have delivered mail ballots only to those on the list. Election officials argued that the plan was open to abuse and could cause chaos, while the postal union objected to mail carriers being made to police ballots. The Postal Service had published a proposed rule required by the order in the Federal Register, but Talwani’s earlier ruling put it on hold.
The AP report said states already have detailed processes to keep their voter rolls accurate, and voting by noncitizens has been shown to be rare. It is also a felony that can be punishable by deportation. In a separate challenge to the order, a federal judge in Washington in May agreed with the Trump administration that it was too early to block the move because it had not yet been implemented. In July, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld that ruling.
Other rulings have also gone against the Trump administration’s first executive order on elections, signed months after he began his second term, which would have required people to show documents proving citizenship when registering to vote, among other changes. Since his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, Trump has repeatedly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud and launched a federal investigation into that year’s vote, even though repeated audits and investigations, including ones run by Republicans, found no widespread fraud. He has also said he wants to ‘take over’ election administration in Democratic areas. The latest ruling adds to the legal hurdles facing his effort to change election rules before the midterms.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
