Attorney General Becerra Secures Early Court Victory to Protect USPS

SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — alongside a multistate coalition of attorneys general led by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — today secured a preliminary injunction barring a series of changes imposed on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. The operational changes have slowed the delivery of mail across the country and followed months of false attacks by President Trump on mail-in voting. Today’s court order requires the Trump Administration to reinstate the processes from prior to USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s unlawful changes while litigation is ongoing. 

“The court has spoken. It’s time for President Trump to follow the law and stop interfering with our mail,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Our elections — and the health and livelihood of American families — depend on it. This is a major victory for the rule of law and protecting our right to vote. Here in California, we’ll keep fighting to stand up for free and fair elections.”

In the middle of a global pandemic, and on the eve of an election in which more Americans are expected to vote by mail than ever before, the Trump Administration, through Postmaster DeJoy, recklessly changed critical aspects of USPS’s nationwide operations. They failed in their duty to seek adequate review of such changes under the Postal Reorganization Act. The result was predictable: mail has been delayed, leaving working families without their paychecks, senior citizens without their medications, and small businesses in the lurch. Critically, the changes put the sanctity of free and fair elections at risk across the country and have resulted in direct harms to the states and their residents.

Despite these attacks, the State of California has taken significant steps to protect the rights of voters and ensure they can vote safely and securely. In California, county election officials are required to process and count vote-by-mail ballots that are postmarked on or before election day and arrive no later than 17 days after the election. Further, as a result of Assembly Bill 860, every registered voter in California will receive a vote-by-mail ballot in the general election. More information about registering to vote or checking your registration status is available on the California Secretary of State’s website at https://www.vote.ca.gov/.

Today’s court order out of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania comes just weeks after Attorney General Becerra filed suit in August and on the heels of a subsequent effort by the coalition to put an immediate halt to the changes imposed by the Trump Administration. The ruling also aligns with earlier decisions secured in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In seeking the preliminary injunction, Attorney General Becerra joined the attorneys general of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia.

A copy of today's decision is available here.