STOP IT!! NO!! THE USPS DID *NOT* PUT THE MAIL-IN BALLOT RULE INTO EFFECT!!!
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. – attorney, law professor emeritus, and author of Federal law
Several social media accounts, influencers, and even major news outlets, are reporting that, despite court injunctions, the U.S. Post Office put into effect Trump’s mail-in ballot rule (the one where states would have to upload their mail-in ballot voter rolls to the post office or else the post office would not carry and deliver them).
THIS IS NOT ACCURATE! IT IS NOT TRUE!
Here’s what *did* happen:
They *finalized* the rule. That is *completely* different from them putting it into effect.
In fact, that is *routine* and what they are *supposed* to do! It does *not* mean it is in effect!
How a Proposed Rule Becomes a Rule:
Remember how after Trump’s executive order directed the USPS to create this rule? (That executive order has also been halted by the courts, by the way.)
Generally speaking, under the law (the Administrative Procedure Act) a federal agency that is promulgating a new rule must publish it on the Federal Register and allow for a period of public comment.
So the post office *proposed* the rule, and published it on the Federal Register. Remember that?
And remember how then the public had 30 days to *comment* on the proposed USPS rule?
Now, once the period for public comment has closed the agency can choose to either not go forward with the rule, or they can *finalize* the rule.
THIS is what the post office did: they *finalized* the rule.
Finalizing the rule is a *routine* administrative action, and means exactly *nothing* but that the rule is finalized.
THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS PUTTING IT INTO EFFECT!!
Here is the ACTUAL status of things:
– More than one court has issued an injunction against the rule, including Courts of Appeals
– The administration has now appealed those rulings to the Supreme Court
– The USPS has that finalized rule *waiting in the wings* ready to go *in case* the Supreme Court rules in their favour.
Please stop spreading misinformation.
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(The above was provided by me, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq.- attorney and law professor emeritus – all me, no AI, the buck stops here.)
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