Judge Blocks Loyalty Questions Across 70,000 Federal Jobs

The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s plan to impose new federal requirements on mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections. The rules would have required new envelope designs, barcodes and voter-information uploads, giving the Postal Service authority to refuse some ballot mail; election officials and lower courts warned they could disrupt voting and lead to legitimate ballots being rejected. Separately, a federal judge in Boston blocked a Trump administration rule replacing the longstanding “duration of status” system for foreign students and exchange visitors with fixed stays generally limited to four years, while restricting foreign journalists to 240-day stays and Chinese journalists to 90 days. Judge F. Dennis Saylor said the Department of Homeland Security offered exceptionally weak justifications, failed to address public concerns and did not consider less burdensome alternatives. Universities, labor groups and medical educators said the policy would harm research, higher education and physician training, while the administration said it was needed to combat visa fraud and prevent indefinite stays.