A federal judge on Wednesday removed a nationwide injunction that had blocked key parts of President Trump’s mail-in voting policy, clearing the last major legal obstacle for the administration’s plan.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani vacated her earlier preliminary injunction after the Supreme Court cleared the way in a related case on Monday. Her new order was without prejudice, leaving the door open for plaintiffs to amend their complaint and seek a fresh injunction now that the Postal Service has issued its final rule.
Talwani noted it was “likely that the Supreme Court would apply the same reasoning” to her nationwide block. She quoted the high court’s unsigned majority opinion, which stressed that courts review final rules, not proposed ones or internal directives, and that any judicial review of the merits was unavailable at this stage. Just one day earlier, Talwani had ruled that the administration violated her nationwide injunction by finalizing the mail voting rule. On Wednesday, she lifted that barrier.
