Washington DC - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the United States Postal Service from making changes to the way it delivers mail-in ballots despite an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in March.

According to Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, Trump's demands likely violate a 2021 settlement agreement reached between the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the USPS.

The USPS agreed to "prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of election mail" after they were sued over delays the NAACP argued had disenfranchised voters.

Policies handed down by Trump via executive order request that the USPS not deliver mail-in ballots in states that refuse to hand over voter data and electoral records to Washington. Such a directive, Sullivan argued, would violate the agreement.

In his opinion, Sullivan said the order seemed "designed to exert federal control over who in the US may be sent a mail-in or absentee ballot in federal elections by the Postal Service."

While new rules for the USPS haven't been finalized and are not yet enforced, Sullivan decided to hand down the judgment preemptively due to its violation of the 2021 agreement.

The decision follows a ruling last week by a Massachusetts judge who argued the USPS does not have the constitutional authority to administer elections. As such, it cannot refuse to deliver mail-in ballots in certain states.

"The proposed USPS changes would have created unnecessary and unlawful barriers, in direct violation of the USPS' mandate to prioritize election mail," said NAACP Senior Associate General Counsel Anthony P. Ashton in a statement cited by Common Dreams.

"Those barriers could have disproportionately harmed Black voters, who are more likely to rely on mail voting due to long-standing inequities in access," Ashton said.