Judge blocks USPS from carrying out Trump plan to restrict mail-in ballot delivery

A federal judge in Washington blocked the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out a plan that would have restricted mail-in ballot deliveries as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to change how mail ballots are handled nationwide, according to multiple news organizations. The ruling prohibits the Postal Service from enforcing the changes while the underlying legal dispute proceeds, according to reports describing the decision.

The case centers on a U.S. Postal Service proposal that would have conditioned ballot delivery on state compliance with new voting administration requirements. Reuters and The Guardian reported that the Postal Service’s approach would deny or pause deliveries to states that did not meet specified conditions, including requirements tied to access for the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to state voter-related information and requirements for changes to state balloting procedures.

Reuters and other outlets reported that the decision came from Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Guardian reported that the judge’s order barred implementation of the Postal Service plan, citing conflicts with a 2021 settlement that required the Postal Service to take “extraordinary measures” to ensure timely ballot mail delivery. The reporting also said the judge found the proposed restrictions could violate those established obligations.

The dispute traces to litigation involving election mail service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Guardian reported that a previous case led to the 2021 agreement affecting how the Postal Service must handle ballot mail so voters can receive and return ballots on time. The outlets covering Wednesday’s ruling said the new proposed restrictions were at odds with those delivery protections.

The Postal Service plan was described by multiple outlets as being tied to an executive-order directive issued by the Trump administration. Because the supplied record does not include a White House or Federal Register primary source confirming the order’s precise text, title, or dates, this story does not state the order as an Apex-confirmed fact. Fox News, Reuters, and CNN reported that the Postal Service action was linked to President Trump’s executive-order request to impose sweeping changes to mail-in voting administration nationwide.

Beyond the immediate delivery restrictions, the ruling preserves the status quo for how ballot mail is processed while courts evaluate whether the Postal Service can implement the proposed conditions without violating earlier legal commitments. The Guardian reported that it was at least the second recent court setback for the administration’s broader mail-in voting restrictions, underscoring that implementation faces ongoing judicial scrutiny.

Separate legal challenges involving election-voting restrictions are also ongoing. A separate press release from the ACLU of Massachusetts, referenced in the research results, said a federal court allowed part of a challenge to continue regarding a Trump executive order restricting mail-in voting for the midterm elections, indicating that the broader litigation over the administration’s election administration changes is not limited to the Postal Service proposal described in Wednesday’s ruling.