Federal Appeals Court Blocks Executive Order Restricting Mail Ballot Delivery
A First Circuit ruling prevents federal agencies from restricting vote-by-mail distribution across 23 states ahead of the midterm elections.
A federal appeals court has refused to reinstate a presidential executive order that sought to establish a federal citizenship registry and restrict the U.S. Postal Service from delivering mail-in ballots to unregistered voters.
The Saturday decision by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals maintains an injunction across 23 states and the District of Columbia, preventing the White House from overhauling mail-in voting procedures ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Under the March directive, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration were tasked with compiling a nationwide “state citizenship list” of verified voters. The directive commanded the U.S. Postal Service to withhold vote-by-mail ballots from anyone not appearing on that central repository.
While President Donald Trump framed the measures as necessary safeguards against voter fraud by non-U.S. citizens, state election directors warned that relying on incomplete federal databases would lead to administrative chaos and disenfranchise eligible voters.
Democratic officials from 23 states and Washington, D.C., mounted a legal challenge in U.S. District Court in Boston, asserting that executive branch mandates governing ballot distribution infringe upon constitutional protections. Under the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution, individual state legislatures—alongside Congress—hold primary authority to set the times, places, and manner of holding federal elections, leaving little constitutional room for unilateral executive intervention in state election administration.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, previously ruled in favor of the coalition, barring the administration from applying the mail-in ballot limitations for the upcoming midterms within the participating jurisdictions.
In a statement issued Sunday, the Justice Department stated it was reviewing all available legal options while expressing confidence that the executive order will ultimately be upheld through further litigation.
