A federal appeals court has upheld an injunction blocking President Donald Trump's executive order to create a federal voter eligibility list and restrict mail-in ballot delivery in nearly half of the United States. The ruling, issued Saturday by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — based in Boston — rejected the Trump administration's attempt to implement the measures ahead of November's midterm elections, in which all seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for grabs.

Trump signed the executive order on March 31, 2026, directing the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to compile a "state citizenship list" of eligible voters using federal data. The order further required the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to individuals appearing on that list, and mandated the use of uniquely barcoded envelopes to track votes. The White House framed the measures as safeguards against non-citizens casting ballots — a concern Trump has raised for years without providing supporting evidence.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia filed a legal challenge in federal district court in Boston, arguing that the order was unconstitutional because the authority to set election rules rests with the states and Congress, not the presidency. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani agreed and issued an injunction halting the order's implementation — but only in the states that joined the lawsuit. Saturday's appeals court ruling keeps that block in place. The White House and Justice Department had not commented publicly by Sunday.

This is not the first time Trump's efforts to curb mail voting have been struck down. An earlier executive order on the same issue, signed in March 2025, was also blocked by courts following legal action from Democratic-led states. Critics of such restrictions argue they risk suppressing turnout among groups — including Black voters in Southern states — who have historically faced barriers to the ballot box. Under the U.S. Constitution, election rules are primarily a state prerogative, a principle central to both legal challenges.

With the November 3 midterms now months away, the ruling has significant practical implications. State election officials who opposed the order had warned it was ripe for administrative chaos. The legal fight is likely to continue, but for now the injunction holds in the 23 states that sued, leaving the federal voter list order effectively suspended across a wide swath of the country.