Federal Court Grants Urgent Review of Trump’s Election Order Ahead of November Midterms

By Michael Katz | Thursday, June 18, 2026, 7:26 p.m. EDT

A federal judge in Boston has narrowed consolidated lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s election-integrity executive order, allowing claims tied to November’s midterm elections to proceed while dismissing challenges involving future elections as premature.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani wrote in a 17-page ruling that the potential impact of Trump’s order on the midterm elections and earlier primaries meant parts of the plaintiffs’ case could not wait to be heard.

“In light of the executive order’s specific deadlines over the next three months, and the reality that elections will be occurring throughout this period with the November 3, 2026, midterm occurring in just five months, postponing judicial review is impracticable and may inflict significant hardship on Plaintiffs,” Talwani wrote.

“With an ever-narrowing window of time in which review is appropriate and practicable, and where that review may well require timely involvement by the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court prior to the November 3, 2026, election in order to ‘maintain public confidence in election outcomes,’ the court finds that the legality of the executive order as to the November 3, 2026, election (and earlier elections) is both ripe and fit for review,” Talwani wrote.

The lawsuits were filed by 23 Democrat-led states, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro — a Democrat — and voting rights groups including the League of Women Voters.

“We are grateful the court recognized the urgency and stakes of this case and allowed our lawsuit to proceed with respect to this year’s elections,” the plaintiffs and their counsel said in a statement released by the League of Women Voters.

Trump signed the order on March 31 after years calling for tighter rules on voting by mail following his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Trump has long claimed that voter fraud affected the outcome.

Under the Constitution’s elections clause, each state establishes how it will hold congressional elections, subject to Congress adopting or altering the state requirements.

Trump’s order directed the Department of Homeland Security to compile and transmit to the states a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state, derived from citizenship and naturalization records and other federal databases.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement: “The Trump Administration will continue to fight for the agenda the President was elected on – which includes the safety and security of our nation’s elections.” She added, “This very campaign pledge from the President is why millions of Americans sent him back to the White House. Election security is common sense, and Democrats owe it to the American people to support the President’s mission to secure our elections.”

Talwani noted that there were many uncertainties as to how agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service would implement Trump’s order and what, if any, final rules and policies they would adopt.

Those uncertainties, she ruled, justified dismissing for now the plaintiffs’ claims as they relate to elections after November 3.

Michael Katz is a veteran reporter with more than 30 years of experience in news and politics.