by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - attorney, law professor emeritus, and author of Federal law (Join the livestream broadcast about this at 7:15pm Eastern here: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/316943 )
*Just now* Judge Talwani (ooh we love her for so many reasons and decisions) dropped her opinion and order in the case involving the post office's attempt to put into effect Trump's executive order requiring states to *upload their mail-in voter rolls* to the post office.
You may recall that there have been other challenges to this on which I've reported, the challenges mostly being met with issues because the matter was not yet "ripe" - meaning that the rule hadn't actually been implemented, it was a "this may happen" situation, and so the issues and potential damages were speculative.
As I observed to you then, the proposed USPS rule was announced in the Federal Register for public comment, and the comment period was open until the end of July. At the end of the comment period I figured the ripeness issue would be, well, less of an issue.
It turns out that's how Judge Talwani saw it too.
But there was more. Explains Judge Talwani, in her opinion and order (included for Notes from the Front members):
"As discussed in its prior decisions and expanded upon below, the court finds it prudent to review the EO *now*, where less than 90 days pend before the midterms and the millions of citizens who rely on mail voting require clarity as to how or whether they will vote in November."
She then goes on to explain that the EO itself says that "any final USPS rule with respect to the mail-in ballot thing 'shall be issued no later than 120 days from the date of' the EO, i.e., by July 29, 2026."
But guess what? No final rule. In fact no anything has issued from the post office. In fact, observes Judge Talwani, "despite the EO’s directive to the Post Office to issue a rule by July 29, 2026, no final rule has been announced."
And THIS, I submit, is the post office's and Trump's slimy attempt to keep the issue from being ripe. No rule? No ripeness.
No dice.
In a searing 27-page decision, Judge Talwani lets Trump and the USPS have it.
And then she says the three little words that the Plaintiffs (the League of Women Voters - you'd think by now Trump would have learned to not tick off the women - and others) longed to hear:
"Have an injunction"
(Ok, she didn't really say that, but she *did* issue an injunction!)
ALL the defendants (and there are a lot of them) "are preliminarily enjoined from implementing, giving effect to, or enforcing Section 3 of Executive Order No. 14399, with respect to the November 3, 2026 or any earlier federal election, including refusing to transmit mail-in or absentee ballots; or otherwise initiating or completing rulemaking to promulgate the specific regulations outlined in Section 3(b)(i)(v) or (d) of the EO for the November 3, 2026 or any earlier election."
I urge you, I beg you, I beseech you to not only read and *save* this decision - which is one for the history books (as will be the decisions on appeal) - but to start a scrapbook or other collection of these decisions which I and other attorney commentators earmark as for the history books. Because we have been witnessing history in the making - so many of these decisions since January 2025 are going to end up in history and law school textbooks.
I believe it was Phillip Graham of the Washington Post who said that "journalism is the first rough draft of history"... I am so honoured to be here on the front lines to report it for you!
Notes from the Front members: Judge Talwani's decision and order are in your inbox now. (Note: if you have installed the Substack app on your phone you need to be sure to go to your notifications settings *in the app*, and set notifications to "email" because it defaults your account to "not email").
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a sentence in a comment that includes the word "ripe". It will show me that my efforts aren't in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about ripeness! ;~)
P.P.S. Again, you can join my livestream broadcast about this at 7:15pm here: https://open.substack.com/live-stream/316943
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