YES!!! LATEST ON USPS MAIL-IN-BALLOT CLUSTER FLOCK: JUDGE BLOCKS AGAIN – THIS TIME IT’S RIPE!
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. – attorney, law professor emeritus, and author of Federal law
Last night Judge Talwani blocked – again – the USPS from moving forward with their rules regarding mail-in balloting, those being the rules about the form of the envelopes and, most importantly, that the states would have to upload their mail-in voter rolls through a portal or the post office wouldn’t handle and deliver their mail-in ballots!
You will recall that the Supreme Court issued a decision saying (and *only* saying) that with the first injunctions the courts did not have jurisdiction *yet*, because the issues were not “ripe”, meaning nothing potentially injurious had happened *yet*. Courts are not allowed to issue speculative orders – in other words they aren’t allowed to issue orders addressing something that *might*, *possibly*, *maybe*, kinda sorta potentially happen at some future point in time. There needs to be a *concrete* injury or at least a concrete and *clearly imminent* injury.
Because at the time of the first injunctions the USPS had not even finalized the rule, the issues were not ripe. And so the Supreme Court sent it back saying as much but *also* saying, as I’ve pointed out several times now, that a) “This doesn’t mean that the President’s Executive Order is lawful”, and b) that they anticipated the issue coming back up *when it was ripe*.
Well, this time it’s ripe.
Because while that was all going on the USPS *finalized* that rule.
THEN Judge Talwani rescinded her initial injunction and *in* that order rescinding the injunction she telegraphed to the plaintiffs that they needed to file an *amended* complaint, taking into account that *now* the rule has been finalized. (Because, you see, then the complaint would include a *ripe* issue.)
It was clear to me (and anyone who attended the live broadcast on this) that the moment the plaintiffs filed that amended complaint Judge Talwani was going to slap another injunction on the USPS.
And that’s exactly what she did last night.
She issued a two-week emergency injunction (also known as a temporary restraining order or TRO) while she takes the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction “under advisement”. This is because in the amended complaint the plaintiffs *asked* for a TRO *and* for a preliminary injunction. And *that* is because a TRO can be issued more immediately and with less deliberation over the entirety of the case – which is why they have to be very short in duration. TROs are meant to stop immediate harm while the Court takes up the issues. So basically they bought themselves two weeks to craft a killer injunction while still stopping the USPS from moving forward with implementing the rule in the meantime.
I of course expect an appeal.
Notes from the Front members: Judge Talwani’s order from last night is in your inbox now.
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a sentence in a comment that includes the word “ripe”. It will show me that my efforts aren’t in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about something being ripe! ;~)
(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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