WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, asked the Supreme Court to temporarily allow the U.S. Postal Service to enforce new mail-ballot handling rules for the November midterms, two days after a federal judge blocked the agency from doing so, NBC News and ABC News reported.

It is the third time the administration has taken the dispute to the justices. The latest filing answers Friday’s preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who found the USPS final rule likely unlawful and warned that “immediate implementation … less than seventy days before the November 2026 election threatens disenfranchisement of millions of United States citizens who seek to vote by mail.” Her earlier temporary block, set to expire Sept. 10, is now indefinite unless a higher court intervenes, ABC reported.

The rule, rooted in a March executive order, would require states that use USPS for federal ballot mail to upload name, address, and barcode data for intended recipients into a Postal Service portal. Postal workers could then refuse delivery to addresses not on the list. Critics call that a federal takeover of election logistics; the administration calls the requirements “modest.”

In Sunday’s application, government lawyers wrote that the rule “imposes only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements,” keeps states responsible for voter eligibility, and “does not dictate ballot content, mailing or receipt deadlines, or ballot-counting procedures,” according to NBC’s account of the filing. DOJ withdrew a prior pending Supreme Court request after submitting the new application tied to Talwani’s latest order.

North Carolina began shipping mail ballots last week — the first full state wave under the 60-day midterm clock — raising the stakes for a quick high-court answer. Challenging states and voting groups have until Tuesday at 10 a.m. to respond, ABC reported. Insanity Developing previously covered Talwani’s TRO fight and the first emergency stay ask.

Federalizing ballot mail through USPS portal lists so close to Election Day is the kind of concentrated administrative power that leaves state election offices scrambling mid-cycle — whether the government’s “modest” framing holds or not.

Sources