RismadarVoice Reporters
September 14, 2026
A second federal judge in the United States has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing new rules aimed at restricting mail-in voting, adding to the legal challenges facing the policy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
US District Judge Carl J. Nichols issued the preliminary injunction late Sunday in Washington, D.C., preventing the United States Postal Service from implementing the regulations introduced under an executive order signed by Trump earlier this year.
Nichols said the plaintiffs had shown that allowing the rules to take effect could result in a significant number of otherwise valid absentee and mail-in ballots being rejected.
“The public has a strong interest in ensuring that doesn’t happen,” the judge said in his ruling.
The decision comes as the US Supreme Court considers a separate challenge to the same regulations.
The Supreme Court is currently reviewing an appeal by the Trump administration against an earlier ruling by US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, which barred the Postal Service from enforcing the new mail-voting requirements before the November midterm elections.
Both cases were filed after the administration formally introduced the regulations on August 21.
Nichols, who was appointed to the federal bench by Trump, had previously declined to block the policy, ruling in May that the lawsuit had been filed prematurely. Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, had also faced a similar procedural hurdle before the Supreme Court lifted her earlier injunction last month.
Under the new regulations, states would be required to obtain Postal Service approval for ballot envelope designs and upload information identifying voters eligible to receive mail ballots into an online system that is yet to become operational.
Election officials have warned that implementing the changes so close to the midterm elections could cause serious disruption.
Mail ballots have already begun going out in Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin, while officials in several other states are preparing to begin distribution.
A whistleblower report submitted to Congress also warned that millions of voters could potentially be disenfranchised if the regulations were allowed to take effect.
The union representing US Postal Service workers has opposed the policy, arguing that postal employees should not be responsible for determining whether individuals are eligible to vote.
Trump has repeatedly criticised mail-in voting and has falsely linked the voting method to his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Despite his criticism, Trump has also used mail-in voting himself.
