Second federal judge blocks Trump mail ballot order

A federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service on Sunday to stop implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail balloting, adding another obstacle to the administration’s effort to rewrite election rules as the Supreme Court is poised to weigh in. The Supreme Court already is considering the administration’s appeal of an order by U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston prohibiting the Postal Service from enforcing its new rule on mail voting before this year’s midterm elections.

Late Sunday, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols in Washington, D.C., handed down a similar hold on the rule.

Nichols had refused to issue an injunction in May, ruling at the time that a lawsuit was brought too early. That was the high court’s reasoning late last month when it lifted an earlier freeze by Talwani. Then the administration issued its rule to move ahead with Trump’s plan, and the plaintiffs in Boston and Washington, D.C., refiled their lawsuits.