An appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s latest attempt to implement restrictions on mail-in voting efforts that could disenfranchise millions of voters — many of them people of color – ahead of the 2026 midterm election.
The three-judge panel upheld a lower court’s ruling that blocked President Trump’s executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on a federal citizenship list of eligible voters.
The Trump administration previously filed an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal judge blocked the postal service from carrying out Trump’s executive order ahead of the midterm elections. Several states, including North Carolina, have begun mailing out ballots.
Last month, the Supreme Court last month paved the way for the Trump administration to implement parts of the executive order but did not say in its decision whether the order was lawful.
This latest effort threatens to impact those who rely on voting by mail, including Asian Americans who traditionally rely on mail-in voting and Native Americans who have also faced roadblocks to mail-in voting, including a high ballot rejection rate, according to civil rights and legal experts and civil rights organizations. Recently naturalized citizens, who may have language barriers, the elderly, and people with disabilities also rely on voting by mail.
During the 2020 presidential election, a record number of Americans voted by mail, including Asian and Hispanic Americans, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Many Americans also cast their ballots by mail during the 2024 presidential election.
Civil rights and voting rights organizations filed lawsuits against the administration over its mail-in voting restrictions. They also warned the executive order has confused and intimidated people from voting.
“The uncertainty surrounding the EO’s implementation compounds the upheaval and fear communities feel and chills democratic participation,” the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund and other groups said in an amicus brief to the court.
The NAACP also wrote in an amicus brief that its members and communities of color would be harmed if the administration is allowed to proceed with its efforts.
“It is beyond dispute that voter intimidation historically has been a tool used by those seeking to disenfranchise Black voters,” the NAACP wrote. “The Final Rule would strip Black and other marginalized citizens of the ability to cast their ballots free from intimidation or the threats of intimidation that plague the democratic process and interfere with a fundamental right.”
Democratic officials from the District of Columbia and more than 20 states have also sued the Trump administration over the executive order, calling it unconstitutional.
In June, the Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to arrive after Election Day.
