A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Postal Service from enforcing a presidential order that would have required states to provide lists of mail-in voters for ballots to be sent. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a nationwide injunction Wednesday against the order.
Sullivan determined that the directive, issued by President Donald Trump, would violate a settlement agreement from an earlier 2020 lawsuit between the Postal Service and the NAACP. This agreement allows courts to oversee the postal service's actions related to the "monitoring and timely delivery of Election Mail."
The judge wrote that the proposed rule contradicts the settlement because the Postal Service cannot document its policies for prioritizing election mail if its own policies prevent it from accepting "noncompliant mailing" or mailing ballots to voters in states that fail to certify a voter list.
Sullivan's ruling extends a previous decision that blocked the order in nearly 25 states that had challenged it earlier this year. The order had stipulated that the Postal Service would only transmit ballots for states that first provided a list of absentee voters, among other requirements.
This decision follows another recent legal setback for the Trump administration's election-related directives. Last week, an Obama-appointed judge blocked an effort to restrict noncitizens from registering or voting in federal elections. That lawsuit centered on an executive order issued in March that aimed to create a federal voter registration list and impose new restrictions on mail-in voting eligibility as part of an initiative to combat voter fraud.
A White House spokeswoman previously stated that President Trump is committed to ensuring the integrity of U.S. elections and that the executive order lawfully protects them, expressing confidence in its eventual implementation.