he Department of Justice has filed an emergency appeal asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in an ongoing legal battle over new U.S. Postal Service regulations for mail-in ballots, just weeks before November’s midterm elections.

In the filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer requested that the high court immediately lift a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts that blocks the implementation of key USPS ballot requirements.

The emergency filing comes after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a 14-day temporary order halting enforcement of the new federal rules. The regulations, which grew out of executive actions regarding election administration, require states and local election offices to adhere to specific envelope design standards, include unique tracking barcodes, and submit voter data to a federal online portal to enroll mail-in voters on specific participation lists.

In the emergency request, Sauer argued that the Postal Service holds clear congressional authority to regulate federal mail design and tracking, contending that the rules impose only “modest informational requirements” to ensure election integrity. The administration maintains that state election officials cannot use federal mail infrastructure while refusing to abide by agency operational standards.

A coalition of two dozen Democratic-led states and voting rights organizations challenging the regulations argue that the federal rules intrude on state constitutional authority to run elections, create severe logistical delays, and threaten to invalidate legitimate ballots close to the election.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who handles emergency applications originating from the First Circuit Court of Appeals, has directed the state plaintiffs and voting rights groups to submit their formal response to the Justice Department’s request by Tuesday morning.