A federal appeals court handed President Donald Trump a temporary win in a fight over mail-in voting, pausing one lower-court order that had blocked a Postal Service proposal aimed at tightening federal control over how ballots move through the mail.
The three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Friday to put the lower-court decision on hold. The administration still cannot enforce the proposal because a separate judge in Massachusetts blocked the policy last month, and that order remains in place.
The dispute centers on a proposed U.S. Postal Service rule that would require states to create lists of approved voters and follow stricter rules for mail-in ballots. Postmaster General David Steiner told senators last month that the Postal Service would not deliver mail-in ballots in states that refused to turn over voter lists.
Asked by Sen. Gary Peters whether ballots would still be mailed if a state refused to provide its absentee voter list to the federal government, Steiner replied: “Under our proposed regulation, no. We would tell the state that we need the manifest.”
The NAACP challenged the Postal Service over the proposal. The group had previously sued the agency in 2020 over delays in election mail, and the two sides settled in 2021 with an agreement covering timely delivery of election mail for national elections through 2028.
In Friday’s ruling, the appeals court said the administration was likely to succeed because the challenge was premature, as the rule has not been finalized, and because the case was not covered by the 2021 settlement.
The court also said the administration had shown it could face irreparable harm if the Postal Service could not finalize and implement the rule before the midterm elections. “In this context, ‘there can be no do over’ once the election occurs,” the ruling said.
