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Judge removes one hurdle for Trump mail voting order as states file new challenge before midterms

A federal judge on Wednesday lifted a major obstacle to President Donald Trump's executive order limiting mail voting, even as Democratic state officials filed a new court challenge with the midterm elections fast approaching.

The fresh round of legal wrangling comes just two days after the Supreme Court handed down a procedural ruling in Trump's favor, and could mean the issue lands before the high court again before the pivotal contests for control of Congress. The first mailed ballots are set to be sent out next week.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston agreed to lift an order prohibiting the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump's order for November's elections. She wrote that she was "compelled" to do so after the Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled that a similar injunction she granted in a separate case was premature.

Talwani nevertheless said the executive order could unleash "chaos" and referred to it as "likely unconstitutional."

The administration can now move forward and implement a Postal Service rule published late Friday. It would require states to follow a uniform envelope style for mail ballots and to give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them.

The new lawsuit, filed by about two dozen Democratically controlled states against the U.S. Postal Service, marked a new phase in the high-stakes litigation.

It came after the Supreme Court ruled against them in a separate case, but did not say Trump's order was legal.

The high court majority found the initial Democratic lawsuit was premature, but that was before the Republican administration issued a rule governing Postal Service delivery of mail ballots.

Election officials warn it will be impossible to implement before the first wave of mail ballots are sent out next week.

"Across the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections. Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans' right to vote," New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 25 Democratic attorneys general filing the lawsuit, said in a statement. "USPS has no authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail."

The Trump administration plan faces a third lawsuit originally filed in May in the nation's capital, though courts there have so far declined to block it.

All previous challenges were filed before the administration published its mail ballot rule Friday night.

Three Secret Service officials have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation

Three U.S. Secret Service officials were placed on administrative leave Tuesday, pending the outcome of an investigation by the agency's professional standards office.

The three were operating in non-law-enforcement capacities and were being investigated for potential misconduct, the agency's public information office reported. However, the cause for the action remained unclear as the Office of Professional Responsibility was beginning its review.

The Secret Service has been under scrutiny as President Donald Trump has been the subject of at least three assassination plots in the past two years. In April, police said an armed man breached security at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, which Trump was attending.

The Secret Service has also found itself in the spotlight after other recent incidents.

The Justice Department last month subpoenaed New York Times journalists after they reported on security concerns involving the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One. The subpoenas, which were later withdrawn, came after The Times reported that Trump was urged to leave Turkey on the old Air Force One at the urging of the Secret Service.

Then, Trump earlier this month acknowledged that he had actually slipped away from Air Force One as he departed Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a "different plane" due to concerns that he was being targeted for assassination by Iran.

Trump only confirmed he slipped away after The Washington Post reported that he had taken part in the elaborate ruse in which some of his staff, Secret Service and journalists flew on the old model Air Force One while he was snuck onto an alternate military aircraft to get out of Turkey.

Last month, the Secret Service also confirmed that one of its agents serving on Vice President JD Vance's security detail was being investigated over allegations tied to a suspected news leak. The Secret Service said the investigation was tied to a July MS NOW report detailing some of its agents' frustration over last-minute travel requests from Vance and his family.

Republican nominee for Maine governor says he wants ICE agents at polling places in the state

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Maine's Republican nominee for governor recently told a crowd of supporters that he would ask a top Department of Homeland Security official to send U.S. Marshals and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling places in the state for this fall's midterm elections, according to audio obtained by The Associated Press.

During an Aug. 20 event in Arundel, Bobby Charles told a group of supporters that he would ask Tom Homan, the White House border czar, to send federal agents to polling places in the weeks before Election Day. The audio was first reported by the Bangor Daily News.

"Here's my secret," Charles told members of a Maine Young Republicans chapter. "I have a friend named Tom Homan. Tom and I used to get on Fox all the time together. Tom's an awesome guy."

"I'm going to ask Tom, I'm going to actually -- three or four weeks before the election, maybe three -- I'm going to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths," Charles said, according to the audio.

On Wednesday, he explained his comments by saying state and local authorities who manage elections should have an open line of communication with federal authorities if needed to "prevent violence at a voting place, in order to prevent intimidation at a voting place and in order to prevent illegality at a voting place."

He said his point was that Maine authorities should do everything legally possible to prevent illegal voting in the state.

"Everybody who is legally entitled to vote should be free from any intimidation and should be able to vote," he said in a statement released by his campaign. "Anybody who is not legally entitled to vote should not be voting."

Charles' comments come as President Donald Trump continues to sow doubt about the security of elections in the U.S. elections and takes unprecedented measures to intervene in election administration. The Constitution gives states, and sometimes Congress, the authority to set election rules but grants no such power to the president.

A central part of his attacks is to claim widespread fraud through voting by noncitizens. But those claims are vastly overstated. Voting by noncitizens is exceptionally rare and is punishable as a felony, with deportation as one potential penalty.

Nevertheless, Trump has been pushing Congress to pass a bill that would require voters to show documentary proof of citizenship to vote in the upcoming midterms and signed an executive order directing the Postal Service to send mail ballots only to those on an approved list of verified voters.

When reached for comment on Wednesday, DHS did not address whether department officials had held or planned to hold conversations with political campaigns about election security. DHS officials have previously said they do not have plans to send ICE agents to polling places.

"Elections exist for the American people, not illegal aliens, to choose their leaders," a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to the AP.

Democratic state officials have been concerned about the possibility of immigration agents showing up near polling places on Election Day or during early voting. Several states have taken actions this year to guard against it.

Father says college student was killed by police in Pennsylvania after he went to wrong house

A 22-year-old college student killed by Pennsylvania police responding to a possible burglary had just realized he was at the wrong home and was waiting for friends to come get him when he was shot, his father said Wednesday.

Police in Upper Pottsgrove Township, northwest of Philadelphia, responded around 12:30 a.m. Sunday to a 911 call about a possible break-in attempt, according to the Montgomery County district attorney's office. The office said in a statement that police found Glenwood Pysher IV at the rear of the home and ultimately shot and killed him.

Pysher's father, Glen Pysher, said his son and his friends had visited several bars earlier in the evening and were splitting up to spend the night in two homes when his son took a wrong turn in the woods. Based on what he has been told by his son's friends, Pysher believes his son mistakenly tried to enter what he thought was his friend's house. His son wasn't carrying any weapons, just a phone and backpack containing clothing and a few beers, he said.

"He tried to open the doorknob and obviously startled the homeowner," he said. "From what we understand, he announced, 'Hey! Open the door!' because he thought he was at his friend's house."

Pysher then sat down on the back porch and contacted his friends, who realized he was in the wrong place and set out to find him. But minutes later, they saw police and emergency vehicles and figured their friend would be arrested for public drunkenness. Instead, he was shot.

"At 12:32 a.m. my son was on a FaceTime call with his friends that were coming to get him," he said. "We were told that my son was shot at 12:35 a.m. So what kind of encounter could have ensued? What kind of communication could that officer have given him?"

A Montgomery County Department of Public Safety dispatch record shows police were dispatched at 12:30 a.m. and arrived at 12:34 a.m. Upper Pottsgrove Township Police Chief Al Werner declined to release any information, including the names of any officers involved, until the investigation is complete. The Montgomery County Detective Bureau is investigating the shooting, the district attorney's office said.

The shooting by police checking a report of a possible break-in is sharply distinguished from several other cases in which residents have shot people who mistakenly showed up at their homes.

A judge suspends charges against an ex-Marine arrested on Trump's golf course with ammunition

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) -- A judge on Wednesday suspended criminal charges against a former U.S. Marine arrested at President Donald Trump's Los Angeles-area golf course with ammunition and a gun in his vehicle. He is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.

Los Angeles County Judge John Lonergan Jr. sent Jeanine John Taele, 38, to a mental health court in Hollywood based on statements he made in a pretrial evaluation indicating he wasn't mentally fit to stand trial. In the evaluation, Taele falsely insisted he had been a State Department official for 14 years.

When Taele was arrested earlier this month, he was seen wearing an earpiece and taking pictures of the golf course where Trump was scheduled to attend a Republican National Committee dinner. The event was at Trump National Golf Course Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of LA.

A search of his pickup truck in the golf course parking lot at the time turned up a loaded 9 mm pistol, binoculars and a badge that read "security protection agent," according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

Lonergan expressed particular concern over the 200 pages of Taele's writings that investigators found following his arrest. The writings included schedules for first lady Melania Trump and members of the president's Secret Service, as well as detailed lists for surviving "off the grid." The judge did not say whether the writings included any specific political motives or ideologies.

"This case itself is alarming in this day and age with the violence that is creeping into our everyday lives, especially with our partisanship in the political environment" ahead of the midterms, Lonergan said.

The judge also cited a previous arrest in November 2025 at an AT&T store where Taele accused an employee of spying on him with Meta Glasses, stole the glasses, and was found muttering to himself in the parking lot. He was charged with second-degree robbery following that incident.

Taele was charged with several felonies including possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun and receiving a large-capacity magazine. He was also charged with carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor.

Judge grants Blake Lively $400,000 of $8M in legal fees she sought in film fight with Justin Baldoni

NEW YORK (AP) -- Blake Lively will get just over $400,000 of the $8 million she sought in legal costs from actor and director Justin Baldoni after they settled their fight over the production of their 2024 film "It Ends With Us," a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Lewis J. Liman explained in a written decision in Manhattan why Lively was not entitled to the full amount that her lawyers claim was spent after Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC, filed their own claims in response to her December 2024 lawsuit.

Acknowledging Lively and Baldoni had "waged fierce battle against each other in court," the judge denied Lively the bulk of legal fees she sought, citing the limits of a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits.

The law meant to protect sex abuse survivors from legal actions designed to intimidate and silence victims could only be construed to let her be reimbursed for what she paid lawyers to defend against defamation claims rather than all claims Baldoni made against her, Liman wrote.

Thus, the judge ruled, Lively is entitled to $363,245 in attorneys' fees and $44,206 in costs.

Lawyers on both sides claimed victory for their clients.

Attorney Bryan Freedman, representing Baldoni, called the ruling a "significant victory for my clients" that will leave Lively with less than 5% of what she requested in legal fees.

He said in a statement that it also "sends a clear message that, no matter how powerful you may be, the courtroom is not a place to take advantage of the law for your own personal gain."

Attorneys Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb, representing Lively, said in a statement that Liman's decision was "historic" because it was the first time under the California law that money was awarded. They said it showed "there are real consequences of bringing retaliatory lawsuits."

The lawyers added that Lively had "lifted the curtain for other victims, and set the precedent for others to come forward and expose similar conduct."

In her lawsuit, Lively asserted that she had been subjected to sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.