The Daily Fuckup

A federal judge in Boston has blocked, for now, two central pieces of President Donald Trump’s election executive order in the states that challenged it: the limits tied to mail voting and the plan to build a federal voter-list system. Massachusetts officials said the court’s ruling bars the administration from enforcing those provisions against the plaintiff states while the case moves forward. ([mass.gov](https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-campbell-blocks-trump-administration-from-exerting-federal-control-over-elections?utm_source=openai))

The dispute centers on Trump’s March 31, 2026 order, which the White House said was meant to verify citizenship and tighten eligibility checks in federal elections. The administration framed the order as an election-integrity measure aimed at keeping ineligible voters off the rolls and tightening how ballots are handled. ([mass.gov](https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-campbell-blocks-trump-administration-from-exerting-federal-control-over-elections?utm_source=openai))

State attorneys general, led by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, argued that the president was trying to push federal control into an area the Constitution leaves to the states. In its June 25 ruling, the court sided with the states on the challenged sections and blocked enforcement in the plaintiff states rather than issuing a nationwide permanent ban. ([mass.gov](https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-campbell-blocks-trump-administration-from-exerting-federal-control-over-elections?utm_source=openai))

The practical result is narrower than the original White House pitch and narrower than the earliest state litigation posture suggested: the contested provisions cannot be enforced against the suing states at this stage, but the broader fight over the order is not over. The court’s order also ties the relief to the 2026 federal election cycle, including the November 3, 2026 election, in the plaintiff states. ([mass.gov](https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-campbell-blocks-trump-administration-from-exerting-federal-control-over-elections?utm_source=openai))