A federal court order issued Friday, Sept. 4, blocks the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing new mail-ballot restrictions through Oregon's Nov. 3 election.

For Hillsboro voters, who cast ballots entirely by mail, the ruling means the election will proceed under the same system the state has used for more than 25 years. Ballots are scheduled to begin mailing to Oregon voters Oct. 14.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's preliminary injunction replaces a 14-day temporary restraining order she granted Aug. 27, giving the block more legal durability. The earlier order was set to expire. The injunction holds while litigation continues.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and officials from 24 states and the District of Columbia filed the underlying lawsuit challenging the USPS rule as unconstitutional. The rule, published Aug. 21 and based on a Trump executive order from March, would have required states to collect voter information and transmit it to the federal government. It also would have barred the Postal Service from delivering ballots to voters whose eligibility had not been federally confirmed.

"This ruling keeps Oregon's elections exactly where they belong: in Oregon's hands," Rayfield said in a statement reported by KOIN. "Voters can trust their ballot to arrive the way it always has … and their vote to be counted."

In her ruling, Talwani wrote that Congress never gave the Postal Service authority to set rules for federal elections, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. She found the rule clashed with Congress's statutory scheme and intruded on powers reserved to states.

Talwani also noted that states are required by law to mail millions of ballots on fixed timelines and cannot change course this late in the election cycle, according to OPB. The USPS online portal required for the rule to function was not yet operational as of a Sept. 3 hearing, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported.

The Trump administration quickly appealed the injunction to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The administration had separately asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, Sept. 3, to overturn the earlier restraining order, but that request is now moot because the injunction supersedes it, according to the Statesman Journal.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read called the ruling "an important win" on Friday and said it reaffirms that the state's vote-by-mail elections will go forward as they always have. In July, Read had urged Oregonians who live more than 50 miles from Portland to use ballot dropboxes and to mail ballots by Oct. 27.

The legal fight is expected to reach the Supreme Court. No schedule for the 1st Circuit appeal has been made public.