A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily revived the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to move ahead with a Trump-backed mail ballot rule, pausing an order that had stopped the agency from implementing it. The move keeps alive a dispute that could shape how ballot mail is handled before the 2026 midterms.
The rule traces to President Donald Trump’s March executive order attacking mail-in voting and would require states to give USPS information on voters who requested mail-in or absentee ballots, along with barcode data tied to those ballots. USPS would then use those lists to decide whether to transmit ballot mail, a shift voting rights advocates say could leave eligible voters without ballots if their names do not appear on approved lists or if states do not comply with the new federal requirements.
Judge Emmet Sullivan had blocked the agency earlier this month after agreeing with the NAACP that the proposal would violate a court-enforced 2021 settlement requiring USPS to prioritize the timely delivery of election mail through 2028. The standards and procedures at issue would have let USPS rely on state-supplied voter and barcode data before deciding whether to carry ballot mail, and Sullivan said the agency could not put that plan into effect while the case continued.
On Friday, a three-judge D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel paused Sullivan’s order while USPS appeals. The panel said the agency had made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on two arguments: that the NAACP’s challenge is not yet ripe for review and that the proposed rule likely would not violate the settlement even if it were finalized. In the court’s view, leaving Sullivan’s injunction in place would prevent USPS from issuing and implementing a final rule before the November 2026 general election, and the panel wrote that there can be no do over once the election occurs.
That does not settle the case. It does, however, give USPS a temporary green light to keep moving toward a final rule while the appeal plays out, even after a district judge had already found the proposal would conflict with the settlement. The question now is whether the agency can finish the rulemaking in time to matter before the November 2026 general election, or whether the fight over Trump administration USPS ballot changes will run out the clock.
