A federal judge on Thursday limited the scope of legal challenges to President Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, ruling that plaintiffs can only pursue claims tied to the November 2026 midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee based in Massachusetts, declined to throw out the lawsuits entirely but said she would not entertain challenges related to elections beyond this year. She allowed cases pertaining to the November 3 midterms to move forward, citing the “ever-narrowing window of time” before voters go to the polls.
“In light of the EO’s specific deadlines over the next three months, and the reality that elections will be occurring throughout this period with the November 3, 2026 midterm occurring in just five months, postponing judicial review is impracticable,” Talwani wrote in a 17-page consolidated order.
Trump signed the executive order in March, directing the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to build a verified list of U.S. citizens eligible to vote. The order bars the U.S. Postal Service from mailing ballots to anyone not on that list and directs the attorney general to prioritize prosecutions of individuals who send ballots to ineligible voters.
Nearly two dozen states, the District of Columbia and several voting rights groups filed suit in April, arguing the order was unconstitutional and would strip eligible voters of their ballots. The challengers contend that election administration is a state function that the president cannot direct.
Talwani acknowledged that “many uncertainties” remain about how federal agencies would implement the order, which is why she found it premature to rule on anything beyond 2026.
The ruling follows a separate decision last month in which a federal judge in Washington, D.C., declined to block the executive order in a challenge brought by Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens. That ruling has since been appealed.
Trump has defended the order as a common-sense safeguard against noncitizen voting and ballot fraud. He has repeatedly raised concerns about mail-in ballots since his 2020 campaign, though he has also voted by mail himself, including in a Florida special election earlier this year.
