BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the US Postal Service from implementing part of President Donald Trump's executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress.
The ruling by US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston marked the latest setback for Trump's push to expand the federal government's role in overseeing elections.
Trump, a Republican, signed his executive order in March after years of calling for tighter rules on voting by mail and pushing the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud.
The executive order called on states to provide lists of eligible voters who may receive mail ballots. If states did not comply, USPS would have refused to deliver the ballots.
RULING EXPANDS ON PREVIOUS ORDER
Tuesday's decision effectively expanded on an earlier order Talwani issued in June that prevented Trump's administration from implementing it in 23 mostly Democratic-led states.
Several voting rights groups asked the judge to go further and bar the USPS altogether from implementing the order anywhere in the nation.
In granting the plaintiffs' request, Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, wrote that the executive branch of the federal government had no authority to regulate elections, a responsibility that the U.S. Constitution assigns to individual states.
"The (executive order) is presently causing confusion and threatening both increasing chaos and an erosion of trust in our democracy," Talwani wrote. "Enfranchisement heavily outweighs the executive's attempt to unconstitutionally insert itself into the domain of election regulation."
Neither the White House nor the Justice Department, which represents the federal government in court, immediately responded to requests for comment.
TRUMP SEEKS SUPREME COURT REVIEW
The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put Talwani's earlier decision on hold, arguing the states' case was premature as agencies had not yet finalized plans to implement Trump's order.