Postal Service asks Supreme Court to allow Trump’s mail voting changes

The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to clear the way for the U.S. Postal Service to implement President Trump’s executive order targeting mail voting in time for the midterms.

The high court previously lifted the judge’s block on the president’s executive order itself. Now, the judge has blocked the Postal Service’s final plan .

“The district court’s continued prejudgment of the rule is baseless,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the government’s application.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of former President Obama who serves on the federal bench in Boston, has so far only temporarily put the Postal Service rule on hold until the next stage of the case.

But with only about 60 days until the midterm elections, the clock is ticking . Sauer noted that North Carolina intends to begin mailing ballots Friday, and Alabama will do so next week.

The Postal Service’s plan would mandate that states’ mail-in ballots meet design requirements — such as unique barcodes and an official logo — and require election officials to upload lists of voters who are eligible to vote by mail.

If a ballot doesn’t meet the specifications or someone isn’t on the submitted list, the Postal Service will refuse to deliver it.

The plan has come under legal challenges by blue states and private groups. They argue the rule interferes with state election administration and that the Postal Service has no authority for its plan.

The blue states and private groups suing have until Tuesday morning to respond.

“Contrary to the claims of the district court and respondents that the Postal Service is trying to federalize the rules for mail-in voting, the Postal Service’s final rule imposes only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements for federal-election ballots,” Sauer wrote to the Supreme Court.

Last month, the high court rebuked the judge by ruling that the states likely have no standing to sue over Trump’s executive order itself. Talwani’s new order focuses on the Postal Service’s plan to implement the president’s directive, which was only finalized in recent days.

She held a hearing earlier Thursday on whether to block the Postal Service’s plan indefinitely but has yet to rule.