Trump's USPS mail-ballot rules hit a second roadblock as Supreme Court weighs case

A second federal judge blocked the U.S.

Postal Service's new mail-ballot rules for the Nov.

3 midterms as the Supreme Court weighs whether to allow the restrictions in another case.

Why it matters: Sunday's order adds another hurdle to the Trump administration's bid to upend mail voting .

The blocked rules would allow the USPS to refuse ballots that don't clear new standards, with mail voting already underway in some states.

The latest: U.S.

District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington, D.C., concluded Congress empowered the Postal Service to move mail, not to force states to enroll mail voters in a federal portal or to refuse ballots that fail its checks.

Nichols' ruling follows a similar order from U.S.

District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston blocking parts of the same rule.

The 1st U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals left Talwani's injunction in place on Sept.

10.

Talwani's order found the postal rules violate the U.S.

Constitution and federal statute, while Nichols' new ruling relied entirely on his finding that Congress' Postal Reorganization Act doesn't allow many of the new rules.