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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA federal judge Thursday kept in place, for now, President Donald Trump’s executive order intended to limit who can receive mail ballots, giving Trump an initial victory as he tries to shape who can vote this fall.
In March, Trump signed the order, which directed the Department of Homeland Security to create lists of citizens and told the U.S. Postal Service to compile lists of voters who are eligible to receive ballots by mail. The Democratic National Committee, attorneys general in Democratic-led states and voting rights groups separately sued, arguing the president has no authority to decide who can and cannot receive ballots.
Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court of D.C. ruled against the Democratic National Committee and voting rights groups Thursday, declining to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the order.
Nichols, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, said in his ruling that it is too soon to consider the request for an injunction because DHS has not assembled any citizen lists and the Postal Service has not yet adopted a rule saying how it will implement the executive order.
The case will continue, as will separate legal actions in Massachusetts brought by state attorneys general and a voting rights group.
Trump has spent years falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him, and he has often blamed mail voting for his loss, saying without evidence that it is vulnerable to fraud, though he has voted that way himself. Trump has also portrayed noncitizen voting as common, but it happens infrequently, according to independent reviews.
The executive order directs the Postal Service to draw up lists of voters who can receive mail ballots, and to refrain from sending mail ballots to people who do not make the lists.
The order does not spell out how the Postal Service should compile the information, but it directs DHS to provide states with lists of people who are 18 or older and “confirmed to be United States citizens.” Presumably the Postal Service could use that enumeration for its own lists.
The judge allowed the administration to continue its work to implement the executive order because he determined no one has been harmed by it at this point. Officials have not yet developed rules, compiled lists or prevented anyone from receiving ballots, he noted.
The Democratic National Committee argued the executive order is invalid because the Constitution gives states and Congress — not the president — the authority to oversee elections. Nichols, however, concluded that the order “does not itself regulate voter registration or how mail-in or absentee ballots will be transmitted” but instead tells agencies to develop new procedures while following federal laws.
“While the President may not have the authority to change the design of mail-in ballots or remove individuals from states’ voter registration lists, he does have the authority to supervise and direct the actions of executive branch agencies,” Nichols wrote.
The executive order followed one Trump issued last year that was aimed at changing the deadlines for returning mail ballots and requiring people to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote. Judges blocked those portions of the 2025 order.
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