A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump has blocked the US Postal Service from enforcing the president's executive order restricting mail-in voting, dealing a fresh legal setback to the White House just weeks before the midterm elections. The ruling, issued by US District Judge Carl Nichols, matters because it heightens pressure on the Supreme Court, which the administration has already urged to intervene, to settle the matter with only about 50 days remaining before polling.

Nichols found that the plaintiffs had shown Trump's rule risked a significant number of legitimate absentee or mail-in ballots going uncounted, and ruled that the regulations exceeded the Postal Service's statutory authority. The order would have required all states to supply USPS with lists of mail-in ballot recipients and allow ballots to be checked, and potentially rejected, against a central voter database, a system critics including the ACLU warned could disenfranchise millions, given roughly a third of US voters cast ballots by post. Solicitor General John Sauer called the injunction "baseless" and warned it would sow confusion, but three states have already begun sending out mail-in ballots, and a whistleblower report to Congress flagged serious problems with the USPS system underpinning the plan.