Challenges to USPS Absentee Ballot Rule

Law Forward has filed multiple amici curiae briefs in numerous federal courts and in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging President Trump’s March 31, 2026 executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to take over key functions of mail-in ballot administration and the resultant USPS administrative rule.

The briefs argue that the executive order and USPS rule would conflict with and upend Wisconsin’s uniquely decentralized election system and could disenfranchise eligible voters ahead of the next statewide election.

The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants authority over federal election administration to states and Congress, not the president. By directing USPS to refuse to deliver ballots to anyone not on a new federal “citizenship list” compiled by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the order effectively allows the executive branch to unilaterally determine who is eligible to vote. The federal databases DHS would use to build those lists were designed for immigration enforcement, not voter eligibility, and they have documented error rates that could wrongly flag American citizens as ineligible.

“The president has no more authority to decide who gets a mail ballot than he does to pick the winners of elections,” said Law Forward Director of Litigation Doug Poland. “The Constitution is clear: states run elections, not the White House. And building voter eligibility lists out of broken federal databases, then threatening to prosecute election officials who get it wrong, is a recipe for mass disenfranchisement.”

The amici include the nonprofit organizations Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and EXPO of Wisconsin as well as three Wisconsin voters who attend college out-of-state.

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