NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the U.S. Postal Service’s proposed restrictions on mail-in voting, finding that they violated a settlement with a leading civil rights group that required expedited mail-in ballot handling.
The decision by Washington-based U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan marked the second defeat in the courts in as many weeks for U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to severely restrict mail-in voting ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, with his Republican party locked in a tight battle to maintain control of both houses of Congress.
The Postal Service in May proposed a rule requiring states to provide lists of voters and adopt new balloting procedures before the mail agency would make deliveries. If states did not comply, the Postal Service would refuse to deliver the ballots.
Sullivan, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Bill Clinton, sided with rights group the NAACP, which argued that the new rule would run afoul of a 2021 legal settlement which forced USPS officials to take “extraordinary measures” to ensure timely delivery of ballot mail.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul)
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