President Donald Trump listens during a cabinet meeting, Friday, July 31, 2026, at Camp David, the presidential retreat, near Thurmont, Md., Friday, July 31, 2026 (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
The Trump administration is violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to release records related to U.S. Postal Service (USPS) plans to federalize mail-in voting, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a transparency-focused watchdog group.
In a 15-page complaint, American Oversight accuses the USPS of violating FOIA laws by failing to release requested information about the federal government's efforts to enforce a final administrative rule that resulted in the creation of an online portal intended to screen mail-in ballots for the upcoming midterm elections.
The lawsuit comes in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declined to disturb a district court injunction barring the USPS from enforcing the rule in this November's electoral contests.
The plaintiffs, however, insist time is still of the essence due to an immediate social media response by President Donald Trump. On Truth Social, the 45th and 47th president denounced the high court ruling as sure to cause "irreparable and unrecoverable harm."
"Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the Court System took forever to give, and then blamed it, in part, on no time left to implement a solution to our totally CORRUPT and out of control Mail-In voting 'disaster,' which is a laughing stock all over the World," Trump posted on Tuesday morning.
The plaintiffs say Trump's post, as well as comments made by U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, immediately renewed concerns about the government's "broader efforts to insert itself into election administration" — even with the court's ruling against the USPS rule.
"Although the recent Supreme Court order means that the USPS cannot move forward with the Rule for the upcoming November election, plans for implementation for future elections remain uncertain and opaque, leaving open significant questions and concerns as to whether election officials and the federal government (including USPS, which has not historically played a direct role in election administration) will be able to ensure that eligible voters seeking to vote by mail or absentee will be able to rely on the Postal Service to deliver their ballots," the lawsuit reads.
The filing also questions whether a court order is likely to mean much to the Trump administration in light of the provenance of the litigation leading up to the Supreme Court's ruling.
In two distinct district court cases, two injunctions were issued several months apart stopping the government from moving forward with working on what would become the USPS rule. But the government moved forward anyway — in one case through the appeals process; in another case by ignoring the injunction entirely.
In a case brought by California and other states, the Trump administration fought and won a reprieve with an emergency stay issued by the nation's high court. Then, the lower court took note of the violated injunction in a case brought by the League of Women Voters — but dissolved the ignored injunction in light of the shadow docket stay and due to issues being similar in both cases.
The salience of that violation was brought into stark relief by a government whistleblower who purported to expose several problems with the portal, which was built in defiance of the court order, the plaintiffs say.
"Alarmingly, the whistleblower also alleged, that work on the Portal had been ongoing for at least part of the time that a June 2026 court order blocking it was in effect," the lawsuit goes on.
In the would-be portal, state and local election officials are expected to input every voter's information in order to receive a qualifying postal mail ballot and to "adhere to…data reporting standards."
"The apparently sloppy and rushed manner in which the Federal Ballot Mail Portal and supporting IT systems are being built poses significant risk," the whistleblower letter reads. "Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all."
American Oversight spotlights other issues with the portal.
"USPS adopted an internal 'zero-percent failure policy' under which an entire batch of ballots — potentially tens of thousands — could be rejected if even a single ballot's barcode failed to scan or match a state's list," the plaintiffs explained in a press release announcing their lawsuit.
To that end, American Oversight says it filed four separate FOIA requests for information related to the whistleblower allegations "including development and testing of the portal, protocols for curing potential Portal mismatch issues, and communications about these matters—as well as the relevant court orders—by top USPS officials."
In turn, the USPS denied expedited processing for those requests, the lawsuit claims.
"The public deserves to know who approved this, how far USPS was prepared to go, and what else may be underway," American Oversight Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said in a statement. "That's why we're going to court."