Twelve Republican attorneys general are fighting to bring back a Postal Service mail ballot rule that would let the agency refuse to deliver ballots in states that don’t follow it, even though Trump’s own Justice Department has stopped defending it in court.
The states filed notice Thursday that they will appeal a September order from U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols blocking the rule. That order is a preliminary injunction, which is a court order that freezes a policy while the lawsuit against it plays out. Nichols’ injunction covers every federal election, including the 2028 presidential race. The case now goes to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the federal appeals court that hears cases out of Washington.
The states appealing are Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas.
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The Postal Service released the mail ballot rule in late August in response to Trump’s executive order on mail voting. It would require states to upload lists of approved mail voters, with their names and addresses, to a new government portal and to redesign ballot envelopes with trackable barcodes. The Postal Service said it would not deliver ballots for any state that failed to meet those requirements.
Nichols, whom Trump nominated to the bench, found that the Postal Service likely has no power to impose those requirements on states. His order also bars states from voluntarily putting the rule in place. A whistleblower report claimed the online system states would have to use had not been properly tested and could have kept many eligible voters from getting their ballots on time, or at all.
Republican officials argue the rule would protect mail voting. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wrote in an August court filing that the rule “would help bolster the security of mail voting in Missouri and reduce the risk of fraud.”
The Trump administration is not joining them. Justice Department attorneys confirmed in a court filing that they will not appeal Nichols’ ruling. Their deadline was Thursday, the same day the 12 states filed. A department spokesperson said the Justice Department does not comment on ongoing litigation.
The Supreme Court already stopped the mail ballot rule from taking effect for the midterms, with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting. The Court did not say how it would rule if the case comes back to it.
The rule faces a second challenge in Massachusetts, where 24 Democratic attorneys general and several voting rights groups have sued to stop it.
The stakes are large. At least 33.9 million mail ballots were cast in this month’s general election, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. Eight states, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington, run their elections almost entirely by mail.
Democrats won races up and down the ballot in the midterms, including attorney general races in some states that had Republican attorneys general. NPR reported that it is not clear how long some of the 12 states will stay in the case as a result.
