A federal judge said Tuesday that the U.S. Postal Service violated a nationwide injunction by issuing President Donald Trump‘s mail-ballot rule for the November election, but declined to impose additional relief that would prevent its scheduled publication Wednesday. Her ruling came one day after the Supreme Court found states had sued too early over Trump’s mail-ballot executive order and lifted an injunction in a separate lawsuit.U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani concluded that the Postal Service defied her Aug. 11 preliminary injunction when it issued the final rule Friday and sent it to the Federal Register with an immediate effective date.“Defendants cannot contend that they misunderstood the scope of the court’s order,” Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in her five-page ruling. “Accordingly, despite the Defendants’ protestations that ‘[t]he United States takes its obligation to comply with court orders very seriously,’ the court finds that Defendants violated the preliminary injunction in this case.”
Despite her contentions, Talwani rejected the additional remedies requested by the plaintiffs, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, leaving the rule on track for publication on Wednesday. The existing injunction continues to prohibit USPS from enforcing the requirements for the Nov. 3 election or rejecting ballot mail that does not meet the administration’s standards.
