Posted on 09/14/2026 5:10:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
The order pdf:
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2026cv1114-192
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It would be nice if Congress were to step up and do something. Anything.
Looks like the administration has conceded the ultra vires nature of this rule.
We had to jump through a number of hoops to get our passports processed through the Post Office.
If it’s good enough for passports, why not ballots, hmmmm?
Sonce nobody is required to send their ballot in through mail, not sure how ultra vires would apply.
Declare the insurrection act and any judge who opposes that, just ignore or arrest, no more playing games
I think the passport service comparison is why the ultra vires argument is toast.
FWIW. :-)
A,McConnell recommendation?
I understand it’s on Congress’ agenda right after they pass the SAVE Act.
Speaking of ‘ultra vires’, having lower court activist judges (lawyers) block a policy that is 1. clearly needed, 2. the result of a mandate given to the executive branch by the citizenry, is without question action beyond their intended powers.
Ultra vires means “beyond the powers.” In DSCC v. Trump, the court used it to mean that the U.S. Postal Service issued a Final Rule it had no statutory power to issue.The quote comes from a September 13, 2026 memorandum opinion granting a preliminary injunction against USPS’s Final Rule on “Ballot Mail for Federal Elections.” That rule, prompted by President Trump’s Executive Order 14,399, required special envelope designs, unique Intelligent Mail barcodes, enrollment of mail voters in a new “Federal Ballot Mail Portal,” and refusal to accept outbound federal ballot mail that failed those checks.
The court treated the claim as a classic non-Administrative Procedure Act (APA) ultra vires challenge. Because Congress largely exempted the Postal Service from ordinary Administrative Procedure Act review, plaintiffs had to show that the agency acted entirely in excess of its delegated powers and contrary to the limits of the statutes that create it. The government conceded that USPS could adopt and enforce the rule only if Congress had given it that authority. The court found no such grant.
USPS’s organic statutes let it provide mail service, prescribe mail-classification and postage rules, and operate the postal system. They do not authorize it to impose new election-administration procedures on states, create a federal voter-enrollment portal, condition delivery of ballots on that portal, or refuse to accept otherwise-mailable ballot envelopes. Those features, the court said, went past any reasonable reading of USPS’s authority. That is the ultra vires holding.
Because plaintiffs showed a likelihood of success on that claim, and because the remaining injunction factors also favored relief, the court enjoined enforcement of the rule. In short: the agency did something Congress never empowered it to do, so the action was void as ultra vires.
“It would be nice if Congress were to step up and do something. Anything.”
Most of the problems with our governance today are due to Congress not performing the functions it is assigned in the Constitution. As a result the President through executive orders, and the Judiciary through decrees, have almost completely usurped the powers of Congress.
BREAKING: Judge Nichols a Trump appointee joins the good old boy member list kisses all around the clubhouse.
A Trump appointed judge in DC means absolutely nothing. You have to consider his choices were from among those who could overcome the Senate blue slip test, means the nominee had to be acceptable to the 4 socialist Senators from Maryland and Virginia.
The Republicans are TRYING TO LOSE!!!
You want Congress to “do something”? That’s crazy talk!
The Republicans are TRYING TO LOSE!!!
—
They seem to be doing a really good job of it.
Maybe congress could haul this judge in and ask him a few pointed questions and get some good zingers out of it. Always great theater.
“It would be nice if Congress were to step up and do something. Anything.”
For certain adding another $2,000,000,000,000 in a year to the national debt, you won’t lose a dime on this bet.
100%.
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