BREAKING: Federal appeals court blocks Trump's attack on mail voting again

Описание: BREAKING: Federal appeals court blocks Trump's attack on mail voting again

Trump's sweeping assault on mail-in voting just got shut down in court a second time, and it means his order won't touch the ballots of voters in 23 states and Washington, D.C.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals refused the administration's request to pause a lower court ruling that blocks the Postal Service from carrying out Trump's March executive order targeting mail voting. The panel ruled 2-1 against him, keeping the block firmly in place.

At the heart of the order was an unprecedented power grab. Trump wanted the USPS to deliver mail ballots only to states that first handed over their unredacted voter files to DHS, which would then decide who counts as an eligible voter. The Constitution gives that power to the states, not the federal government, and the court said so plainly.

The judges found the order forces states to eat real costs by redesigning ballot envelopes they have already paid for, and they zeroed in on its threats to criminally prosecute state officials who refuse to comply. When the court asked whether the administration would actually prosecute an official for sending a ballot to someone not on its approved list, Trump's lawyers had no answer.

The database at the center of it all, called SAVE, was built to check eligibility for government benefits, not to vet voters, and experts have shown it repeatedly flags eligible Americans as ineligible. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has openly threatened to bring criminal charges against election officials who won't run their voters through it.

For now, none of that happens. The courts have once again stepped in to stop a federal takeover of how states run their elections, and millions of Americans will keep their access to the ballot. This is what it looks like when the system holds the line.