WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s ruling that blocked limitations on mail voting before the midterm elections, the latest twist in a court fight unfolding days before the first states begin sending out mail ballots for the pivotal November elections.
The notice of appeal filed Friday comes after a federal judge in Boston handed down a new decision blocking implementation of an executive order from President Donald Trump for the next two weeks.
The Supreme Court previously allowed the plan to move ahead on procedural grounds, but hasn’t decided whether it’s legal. The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals will next consider the case, though it could soon be back before the nation's highest court.
Under Trump’s executive order, the U.S. Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots from states that do not submit lists of eligible voters and follow a uniform envelope style. The White House calls the plan a set of “commonsense measures” aimed at protecting ballot security, and calls the order blocking it “unreasoned and unlawful.”
The plaintiffs didn't have immediate comment on the appeal.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani found that states don't have the time or money to design and produce new ballots, update their systems and train officials to upload voter data to the Postal Service in the short time before the midterm elections.
The first mail ballots of the general election to determine control of Congress are scheduled to be sent out Sept. 4.
The Thursday ruling came after Democrats and voting rights groups filed a fresh round of lawsuits to comply with the recent Supreme Court decision. They note that the Constitution grants states and, in some cases, Congress the power to make election rules — not the president or Postal Service.
The whipsawing legal battle could have major ramifications for the midterms. Nearly one-third of Americans vote by mail and election officials contend there isn’t enough time to revise their systems to comply with the new Postal Service directives.
The president has long targeted mail voting, which he falsely blames for his 2020 election loss even though he himself uses it to cast his ballot. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Trump's executive order was challenged in court shortly after being issued in March. Talwani, nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, agreed to block it for the midterm elections. But the Supreme Court found earlier this week that she had acted too soon. The Post Office plan has since been finalized.
Election workers sort vote-by-mail ballots at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office for the Florida primary election in Doral, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting rights, the work of the civil rights movement and racial justice took center stage on the National Mall Friday, with protesters gathering ahead of midterm elections and following a wave of changes to voting laws and redistricting that some have condemned as detrimental to Black Americans.
Hundreds of people gathered near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for the 2026 “Defend the Vote” March on Washington, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, echoing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 march. The event follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark April decision in Louisiana v. Callais that reinterpreted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing Southern states to redraw their congressional maps in a way that erodes equal representation in Black communities.
“We’ve been doing these marches for years, but this is probably the most important because this is the first year we are marching that the voting rights bill has been nullified by the Supreme Court,” Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Friday's event harkened back to King Jr.’s historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, when more than 200,000 people gathered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. That march, an inflection point in the Civil Rights Movement, came at a fraught moment, when economic headwinds, civil unrest, political division and the Vietnam War bitterly divided Americans.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., one of dozens of speakers at the event, said that now is a “very dangerous moment in American history” and that the “dream of a more just and equitable society has never been under greater threat than it is right now.”
He placed blame on Republican President Donald Trump and the Supreme Court's conservative majority, listing attempts to purge voter rolls, obtain sensitive voter data, restrict mail-in and early voting, and redraw Congressional districts as part of threats to voting rights.
“Today, we have a president along with the Supreme Court members he appointed carrying out the most significant assault on voting rights since segregation, targeting virtually every aspect of the electoral system,” Sanders said.
Martin Luther King III told the AP the Civil Rights movement's work “is further eroding” in the wake of the April ruling.
He said his father would be disappointed with the state of the country, but current civil rights advocates should be undaunted.
“Had he lived, we’d be on a totally different trajectory,” the younger King said. “These would not be issues; they would have been resolved. I don’t think he would be surprised because he understands our history and understands those who are trying to retain power. But the challenge is challenging our communities to engage even more.”
King's Drum Major Institute, a progressive think tank and community action group, co-hosted the march with Sharpton's group.
Ray Turner, a 65-year-old Maryland retiree, sat Friday on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial. He came independently, carrying a sign that read “(Puny) Hands off our elections.”
“The lies about the 2020 election being stolen continue to be sounded, even though they’ve been disproved,” Turner said, adding, “Now they’re trying to use this to prevent people who are legal citizens, legal voters, from voting.”
Sharpton said the Trump administration’s immigration policy for Haitians and white South Africans, as well as cuts to social programs, are unifying concerns for this year's march attendees. But redistricting efforts by Republican-led states set to reduce the number of Black lawmakers in Congress loom large.
“This march is about people who refuse to be counted out. When the courts and the legislature broke apart District 6, they did not just redraw lines,” Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La., said in a texted statement. “They told hundreds of thousands of Black families from Baton Rouge up through the Delta that their voice could be taken away at any moment.”
Fields' district was central in the Supreme Court decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court ruled that his district, created just one term ago to permit a second majority-Black district in a state where Blacks make up 33% of the population, was unconstitutional because it relied too heavily on race.
The court has held that maps can be redrawn for partisan reasons.
Louisiana's legislature rushed to redraw the district after the decision, reshaping it to cluster around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.
Fields has opted not to seek reelection to Congress and instead is pursuing a seat in the state Senate.
Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat whose majority-Black district was targeted by the state’s Republican-led redistricting effort, said the original voting rights fight required local movements, national figures, lots of coordination and strategy. He sees this year's march as a continuation of that legacy.
“My district includes Montgomery, which was the birthplace of it all. It started with a bus boycott in 1955 and that, ultimately, morphed into a broader struggle for civil rights and led to a more broad Civil Rights Movement,” Figures told the AP.
Ahead of Friday, organizations participating in the march filed new claims in their federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting. The Supreme Court cleared a path Monday for possible implementation of the order, though it remains unclear how much can be put in place before the midterms.
Late Thursday, a federal judge in Boston who is hearing some of the lawsuits against that executive order put a temporary halt on the administration from moving forward with it. Time is running short to make any significant changes to voting in the midterms, with the first mail ballots scheduled to be sent out next week.
Associated Press writers Gary Fields in Washington and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during the March on Washington rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Rev. Al Sharpton speaks during the March on Washington rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
A group of local activist from Washington DC, demonstrating during the March on Washington rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Martin Luther King III, speaks during the March on Washington rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Activists rally at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington.
Demonstrators shout to speakers during the March on Washington, near the Lincoln Memorial, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Demonstrators shout to speakers during the March on Washington, near the Lincoln Memorial, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Demonstrators pose for a photo near the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Demonstrators listen to speakers during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Demonstrators listen to speakers during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A demonstrator holds a sign in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A demonstrator wears "Vote" earrings near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Demonstrators listen to speakers during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A demonstrator shields herself from the sun with a fan before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A young demonstrator takes photos near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Demonstrators gather near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A demonstrator holds a sign near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Members of the National Guard walk past the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Workers installing bulletproof glass around the podium at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in preparation are made ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the March on Washington, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Workers installing bulletproof glass around the podium at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in preparation are made ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the March on Washington, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
