A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a new lawsuit on Wednesday challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to control mail-in voting through the U.S. Postal Service, arguing that steps the agency took on Friday to finalize its plans will harm them and their voters, making the issue ripe to be blocked by the courts.
The lawsuit came in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday that it was effectively too early for states and other litigants to challenge the administration, as none had — so far — been hurt by the federal government or faced illegal incursions into their balloting.
But the Supreme Court had not taken account of the recent Postal Service action in its decision. In the new lawsuit, the states argued that the new plan issued by the Postal Service late Friday would result in the federal government tying the delivery of mail-in ballots to states’ willingness to help the federal government scrutinize their voter rolls. Under the law, states and Congress set election rules, not the executive branch, they argued.
“Congress has not afforded USPS any authority whatsoever to set rules for federal elections or mail voting, even though Americans have cast ballots by mail for generations,” the lawsuit said.
In the suit, the states described the new Postal Service policy as “part of a broader effort by the president and his administration to rewrite federal election law and usurp the authority of the States and Congress.”
An executive order Mr. Trump signed in March sought to restrict mail ballots and to create state-by-state lists of citizens to help determine voting eligibility.
It instructed the Department of Homeland Security to compile the citizenship lists and then send them to each state. It then asked states to send the U.S. Postal Service their own lists of voters eligible to cast ballots by mail. Under the order, states would be required to compile lists of individuals “enrolled with the U.S.P.S.” who could participate in mail voting.
A coalition of more than 20 state attorneys general and Gov. Josh Shapiro, Democrat of Pennsylvania, first challenged the order in Federal District Court in Boston in April, resulting in the Supreme Court’s finding on Monday.
The same group filed the new lawsuit on Wednesday, also in Boston, where another lawsuit challenging the restrictions on mail-in voting is also pending. In that case, brought by the League of Women Voters and other nonprofits, Judge Indira Talwani on Tuesday ruled she had previously blocked the Postal Service from making any rule changes as part of Mr. Trump’s order that could impact the midterm election in November. She described the new rule as a violation of her previous order.
Either of the two suits could now move quickly through the courts and potentially result in more action by the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, as states gear up to administer elections that are just over two months away.
Numerous voting advocacy groups have warned that the lists of eligible voters compiled by the federal government would likely contain errors based on obsolete data and could conflict with more up-to-date voter registries compiled by the states. In court, the Justice Department also acknowledged that mismatches in the data could lead to certain voters being flagged as noncitizens and having their ballots rejected by the Postal Service.
Mr. Trump has worked for years to discredit mail-in voting as vulnerable to voter fraud and to reduce its availability. A variety of groups, including the Democratic state attorneys general, the League of Women Voters and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, among others, have sued to block the executive order and the new restrictions, arguing they would dampen turnout and sow confusion ahead of a critical election.
“Across the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections,” said Letitia James, the New York attorney general. “Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans’ right to vote.”
