By Nate Raymond and David Shepardson
BOSTON, June 25 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Boston on Thursday blocked implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to tighten rules ‌for mail-in voting, preventing it from taking effect ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sided with a coalition of Democratic-led states that argued that the Republican president is trying to unlawfully interfere with the states’ administration of federal elections.
“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Talwani wrote.
The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, concluded that Trump’s order violated the U.S. Constitution and the Republican president had exceeded his authority in trying to overhaul procedures for elections, which since the republic’s founding in 1789 have been run by states and local governments.
She said the president lacked any authority to compile voter lists for each state and that USPS lacked any statutory authorization to adopt any binding regulations on mail-in voting.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump signed the order on March 31 after a years-long campaign to undermine faith in U.S. elections, including the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud. He has called for years for tighter rules on voting by mail.
His order directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to compile and transmit to the states a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state, derived from citizenship and naturalization records and other federal databases.
Talwani, in siding with a group of 23 states and the District of Columbia that had sued over Trump’s order, said any list DHS compiled of citizens would necessarily be incomplete due to privacy restrictions governing the sharing of sensitive personal data collected by government agencies.
Trump’s order also required the U.S. Postal Service to only deliver ballots to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list. USPS recently moved to implement Trump’s directive by issuing new proposed rules requiring states to provide the names and ​barcodes tied to their mail-in ballots.
The order also directs the U.S. Department of Justice to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of state and local election officials who issue federal ballots to people deemed “not eligible” to vote. Trump administration officials and investigators have fanned out across the country, re-examining fraud cases that have been previously dismissed.
Talwani ruled after a different jurist, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., declined to issue a preliminary injunction in a related lawsuit brought by Democrats challenging Trump’s order.
Nichols found that the Democrats’ request was premature as Trump’s order had yet to be implemented. They are appealing.
Trump has made winning approval of a divisive package of national voting restrictions his top priority and on Wednesday stunned lawmakers by abruptly cancelling a signing ceremony where they hoped to showcase newly passed bipartisan legislation to address the high cost of housing.
U.S. Postmaster ‌General David Steiner told Congress Wednesday that under its proposal USPS would not deliver ballots in states where officials refuse to provide lists of voters who received mailed ballots, but said he would comply with any court order blocking restrictions.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Nia Williams)
By Nate Raymond and David Shepardson | Reuters | © Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.
