Delivery vans are parked during a protest staged as part of a countrywide National Day of Action Tuesday, July 28, 2026, outside the main United States Postal Service headquarters in northeast Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski, File)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-09-03T10:25:30Z<\/p>\n
A federal judge in Boston will hear arguments Thursday on whether to extend her prohibition<\/a><\/span> against the U.S. Postal Service requiring states to use a new mail balloting system for the midterms as part of an executive order<\/a><\/span> by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n The hearing in the closely watched case comes the day before the first state begins sending mail ballots to voters.<\/p>\n U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani is considering whether to order a preliminary injunction that would bar the Postal Service from requiring the new system to be used for the midterms. Last week, she imposed a 14-day temporary restraining order<\/a><\/span> to keep it from being used. That order expires next week as more states begin sending out mail ballots.<\/p>\n Talwani has been here before. In June, she prohibited the administration<\/a><\/span> from trying to implement Trump\u2019s order for the November election, ruling the changes came too close to the election for the federal government to embark on such a project. But the Supreme Court<\/a><\/span> late last month ruled that Talwani\u2019s order was premature because the Postal Service had not yet published regulations governing how it would apply Trump\u2019s order. The agency did so<\/a><\/span> just before the high court ruling came down, prompting Democrats and voting rights groups to swiftly re-file their lawsuits.<\/p>\n They counter that the president has no authority to set election rules, which is a power designated in the Constitution to the states and in some cases Congress.<\/p>\n They won an initial victory with Talwani\u2019s restraining order, which has already been appealed by the administration<\/a><\/span>. It\u2019s likely the case will again end up before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Trump has long opposed mail voting<\/a><\/span> and falsely blamed it<\/a><\/span> for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even though he often uses that method<\/a><\/span> to cast his own ballot.<\/p>\n