There are district court judges whose names have become nationally recognizable in the Trump era, not because they’ve distinguished themselves through legal brilliance, but because they keep appearing in the same story: blocking the president’s agenda with the same determined creativity. Jeb Boasberg. Tanya Chutkan. Juan Merchan. And now, twice over, Indira Talwani.
The Obama appointee has now blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its executive order on mail-in ballot security for the second time — and this second injunction was specifically engineered to survive even if the Supreme Court lifts the first one. That’s the remarkable part. Talwani didn’t just rule against the administration. She structured her ruling to be independent of the case already pending at SCOTUS, creating a separate legal obstacle that would still block the USPS mail-ballot provisions even after the Supreme Court acts on the earlier injunction.
As SCOTUS Wire explained: “Even if the justices lift Talwani’s earlier injunction, this order would separately block USPS from implementing the mail-ballot provisions for the midterms.”
This is not legal reasoning. It is judicial tampering.
The constitutional argument Talwani relies on — that the executive branch “has no authority to regulate elections” because the Elections Clause gives that power to states and Congress — is weak on its face. The executive order in question directs the USPS, a federal agency under the president’s authority, to track mail-in ballots and verify voter rolls. The president directs the USPS. That is not a disputed legal proposition. And the underlying law being enforced — 18 U.S.C. § 611 — makes it illegal for aliens to vote in federal elections. Enforcing federal law is, specifically and explicitly, the executive branch’s job:
It shall be unlawful for any alien to vote in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner…
The political stakes could not be clearer. The Los Angeles mayor’s race demonstrated exactly what Democrats are hoping to replicate nationally: mail-in ballots dumped into the race after Election Day, reversing initial results and producing a runoff between two socialist candidates. Democrats want to repeat that formula in federal races in November — and Judge Talwani just handed them a significant assist.
The Supreme Court has two requests to lift the earlier Talwani injunction already pending. The administration will now need to file for relief from this second injunction as well — or seek an emergency stay that covers both. Either way, the clock is running. Mail-in ballots go out in October. The USPS needs time to implement whatever verification procedures survive judicial review.
The pattern is no longer subtle. This is a coordinated strategy using sympathetic district judges to slow-walk election security measures until it’s too late to implement them. SCOTUS needs to move fast. October is coming.
