A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the U.S. Postal Service's proposed restrictions on mail-in voting, finding that they violated a settlement with a leading civil rights group that required expedited mail-in ballot handling.

The decision by Washington-based U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan marked the ⁠second defeat in the courts in as many weeks for President Donald Trump's push ⁠to limit mail-in voting ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, with his Republican party locked in a tight battle to maintain control of both houses of Congress.

The Postal Service in May proposed a rule requiring states to provide lists of voters and adopt new balloting procedures before the ⁠mail agency would make deliveries. If ⁠states did not comply, the Postal Service would refuse ⁠to ⁠deliver the ballots.

Sullivan, who was appointed to the bench by then-President Bill Clinton, sided with rights group the NAACP, which argued that the new rule would run afoul of a 2021 legal settlement which forced Postal Service officials to take "extraordinary measures" to ensure timely delivery of ballot mail.