Article Summary
- The lawsuit seeks to block the Postal Service from enforcing new rules prohibit transmitting mail ballots to or from anyone not listed on a federally approved database of U.S. citizens.
- The case comes two days after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court injunction blocking implementation of the rules, which stem from a March 31 executive order by President Donald Trump.
- The Supreme Court’s ruling came exactly one month before mail balloting is set to begin in Illinois for the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Wednesday he has joined a multistate lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service challenging new rules that purport to give it authority to regulate mail-in voting in federal elections.
The suit was filed two days after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court order that had blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order that seeks to bar anyone who is not listed on a federally approved database of U.S. citizens from casting a mail-in ballot.
“We are asking the court for emergency relief because the administration is trying to undermine our citizens’ access to voting within weeks of the midterm elections,” Raoul said in a news release. “The U.S. Constitution plainly gives states — not the executive branch — the power to administer elections, and I am committed to swiftly fighting against this blatantly unconstitutional rule.”
The case was filed in federal court in Massachusetts, the same court that issued an injunction in July blocking the Trump administration from implementing the executive order. Plaintiffs include attorneys general from 23 states, including Illinois, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Trump’s executive order
On March 31, President Donald Trump issued an executive order entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” It calls on the Department of Homeland Security to create a “State Citizenship List” for each state identifying residents of that state who are confirmed to be U.S. citizens who will be 18 at the time of the upcoming election.
It also directs the U.S. Postal Service to develop administrative regulations that would prohibit mail carriers from transmitting mail ballots to or from anyone who is not included on those lists.
The lawsuit cites some of the president’s own social media posts as evidence that his executive order is part of a strategy to keep Republicans in power in Washington.
Those include a May 29, 2020, post on Twitter, which is now known as X, saying mail voting would “LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY.” It also cites an Aug. 18, 2025 post on Truth Social saying he aims to “get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS.”
According to published news reports, however, Trump himself cast a mail-in ballot earlier this month in Florida’s primary elections.
Implementing the restrictions
The Postal Service finalized administrative rules to implement the executive order on Friday, Aug. 21, before the Supreme Court issued its order the following Monday. But it remains unclear how, or whether, the new rules will be implemented ahead of this year’s November elections.
A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections told Capitol News Illinois in an email Wednesday that it has not received any federal list of U.S. citizens residing in the state and has not been informed about whether one even exists.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
