League of Women Voters' Marcia Johnson says the president and USPS cannot rewrite election rules
Marcia JohnsonChief of activation and justice, League of Women Voters, a plaintiff in the lawsuit
League of Women Voters chief of activation and justice Marcia Johnson said neither the president nor the Postal Service has the authority to rewrite election rules. In a statement issued after a federal court blocked USPS from implementing the executive order, she said the decision reaffirms that election rules must be set by the Constitution and the law, not by executive overreach.
“This ruling is a victory for voters and for the Constitution. Neither the president nor the U.S. Postal Service has the authority to rewrite election rules. Millions of Americans, including seniors, military voters, voters with disabilities, rural voters, and citizens living overseas, rely on voting by mail to participate in our democracy. Today’s decision reaffirms that the rules governing our democracy must be set by the Constitution and the law, not by executive overreach.”
Official statement
Where this statement fits
Should Trump’s new mail-in voting restrictions apply to the 2026 midterms?
USPS’s new federal ballot-mail rule requires election officials to meet envelope standards, enroll voters through a federal portal and submit outgoing ballots for verification. The Trump administration argues these are lawful anti-fraud postal controls. Challenging states and civil-rights organizations say USPS is intruding into state-run elections and that the late rollout threatens voters’ access. On September 14, the Supreme Court left a temporary block in place for the 2026 election. Alito and Thomas would have allowed enforcement; Kavanaugh objected to applying the rule this year.
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
ACLU press release on the preliminary injunction in League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, with statements from the plaintiffs and their counsel.
Before the quotation
The ACLU's release, datelined Boston, says a federal court on August 11, 2026 granted a preliminary injunction blocking USPS from implementing Section 3 of the executive order for the November 3 midterm elections. The League of Women Voters is among the plaintiffs, whom the ACLU and other groups represent.
After the quotation
The release says the court held that the executive branch has no authority to regulate elections and found that the order was causing irreparable harm to voting rights groups and voters by creating confusion about mail ballots. It adds that the government's emergency request to the Supreme Court in a separate case brought by 23 states and the District of Columbia was still pending.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is implementing the mandatory USPS ballot-mail requirements for the 2026 election, under the executive order. Johnson says neither the president nor the Postal Service has the authority to rewrite election rules, and that the court's decision reaffirms that such rules come from the Constitution and the law, not from executive overreach. That rejects the conduct at issue, so we labeled it Condemned.
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- Donald Trump, United States Postal Service
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The Dispute Index. "League of Women Voters' Marcia Johnson says the president and USPS cannot rewrite election rules". First published: 2026-09-26. Last updated: 2026-09-26. https://disputeindex.com/events/2826-league-of-women-voters-chief-of-activation-and