A federal appeals panel on Saturday rejected the Trump administration’s request to pause a lower court injunction that blocks the US Postal Service from enforcing major parts of President Donald Trump’s March executive order targeting mail-in ballots, a measure critics have described as part of Republicans’ broader attack on voting rights.

In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration’s motion to stay US District Judge Indira Talwani’s June order. The decision leaves Talwani’s injunction in place while the litigation continues, limiting the administration’s ability to implement the challenged postal-voting provisions ahead of the elections referenced by the court. Talwani had blocked substantial portions of Trump’s directive, which seeks to restrict postal voting in part by instructing the USPS to ensure that mailed ballots carry unique barcodes and envelope logos.

“Under the Constitution, state and local officials are responsible for administering federal elections,” Judges Gustavo Gelpí and Julie Rikelman—both appointed by former President Joe Biden—wrote in a joint opinion. “In the spring of 2026, President Trump issued an executive order with nationwide effects on how state and local officials can administer federal elections, including the upcoming primary and general elections in September and November. In particular, the executive order directed substantial involvement by the United States Postal Service in deciding which ballots sent to and from voters would be delivered.”

Judge Joshua Dunlap, a Trump appointee, partially dissented from the majority opinion. The ruling applies to the 23 states and the District of Columbia that sued to challenge the executive order.

As Democracy Docket reported, the ruling also addressed the executive order’s threats to impose criminal penalties on state or local officials who refuse to comply. Under the order, the USPS would send mail ballots only to states that provide their unredacted voter files to the US Department of Homeland Security, which would approve voter eligibility through a national voter registration database. Democracy Docket described that provision as an unprecedented federal incursion into states’ exclusive constitutional authority to determine voter eligibility.

The dispute centers on the division of authority over election administration, with the states and the District of Columbia arguing that the executive branch cannot condition mail delivery of ballots on compliance with federal requirements for voter data and ballot-envelope design. The appeals panel’s refusal to stay the injunction does not resolve the merits of the lawsuit, but it keeps the challenged parts of the order blocked for the plaintiffs while the case proceeds.

Saturday’s decision came just over three weeks after Judge Emmet Sullivan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia halted the USPS’ implementation of Trump’s executive order. Sullivan granted a request by the NAACP to enforce a 2021 settlement agreement requiring the Postal Service to protect mail-in voting and prioritize delivery of election-related mail through 2028.

That ruling followed a June decision by Chief US District Judge Denise Casper in Massachusetts, who blocked portions of the president’s order requiring people to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Trump’s March order is part of a broader voting policy push that includes support for an updated version of Republicans’ so-called SAVE America Act. The measure would require proof of citizenship and strict photo identification to register to vote in federal elections. The legislation passed the House of Representatives in February but remains stalled in the narrowly divided Senate, where it does not have the support of 60 lawmakers needed to avoid a Democratic filibuster.