Judge Talwani Expands Mail-Ballot EO Block Nationwide, Issues Second Injunction; SCOTUS Silent 18 Days

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani (D. Mass.) escalated her block on Trump’s March 2026 mail-voting executive order twice in two days. On August 11 she expanded her earlier June injunction into a nationwide block on USPS implementation of the EO’s “Confirmed Citizen List” and state voter-roll submission requirements. On August 12 she issued a second, separate preliminary injunction covering provisions of the EO her June 25 ruling had not reached. Combined, the two orders block the EO’s provisions in at least 23 states plus D.C. ahead of the November 3 midterms. The Trump administration’s July 27 Supreme Court emergency application to lift the injunctions — backed by 12 Republican state attorneys general against 23 Democratic-led states opposing — had received no response as of the second injunction, 18 days after filing; SCOTUS silence lets the block stand as midterm certification deadlines approach.

This is the next beat in the mail-voting EO fight the timeline has tracked continuously: Talwani’s original June 25 injunction (2026-06-25–talwani-blocks-trump-mail-voting-eo-23-states-dc), the First Circuit’s affirmance and the administration’s shadow-docket race to SCOTUS (2026-07-28–trump-races-scotus-shadow-docket-mail-ballot-restrictions), and the Court’s own response deadline (2026-08-03–scotus-sets-response-deadline-trump-mail-ballot-emergency-appeal). The pattern across all four entries is the same: each incremental court action tightens the injunction’s scope while the Supreme Court — the body whose emergency intervention could reverse all of it — stays silent, letting the lower-court blocks function as the operative law through the run-up to November regardless of the shadow docket’s eventual resolution.