BOSTON / WASHINGTON — The Trump Justice Department on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026, asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an immediate administrative stay and a stay pending appeal of Judge Indira Talwani’s temporary restraining order that blocks mandatory enforcement of the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail-ballot rule, Democracy Docket and the Associated Press reported. Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s emergency application argues North Carolina starts mailing ballots Friday and Alabama on Sept. 9, and that ballots sent while the TRO stands cannot later be forced under the new USPS requirements.

The same day, Talwani held a preliminary-injunction hearing in Boston over the USPS final rule that grew out of President Donald Trump’s March executive order on mail voting. The rule requires election officials to use pre-approved ballot envelopes with unique barcodes and to upload voter-request lists through a federal portal — or risk USPS refusing to mail ballots. Twenty-four Democratic-led states, D.C., and voting groups say that hands a federal agency a choke point over state election logistics weeks before the midterms. The administration calls it standardization and election integrity.

Talwani pressed DOJ attorney Michael Velchik on whether the Federal Ballot Mail Portal was even ready. “We’ve been here for a week and you can’t tell me the government is ready to go?” she asked, according to Democracy Docket. A later USPS declaration said the portal was still being refined and would be available for voluntary use “sometime next week.” Talwani did not rule from the bench; she said she would try to get a written decision out quickly and noted she would “not be the final word.” DOJ told her it would take any injunction straight back to the Supreme Court.

Last month the justices lifted an earlier Talwani injunction as premature because no final USPS rule existed yet. USPS then published the rule; Talwani issued a 14-day TRO. Thursday’s filing puts the emergency docket back in play while states race mail deadlines. About 47 million Americans voted by mail in 2024. The fight is less about slogans than about who controls the plumbing: state election offices or a federal postal rule that can refuse to move the paper if the data and envelopes don’t match Washington’s checklist.

🚨 BREAKING: The Trump DOJ has officially requested the Supreme Court IMMEDIAYELY GREENLIGHT President Trump’s mail-in ballot restrictions for the 2026 midterms— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 3, 2026

Sources