In the ongoing contest over who may vote and how, a federal judge has moved to preserve mail-in voting access by blocking the Trump administration's latest round of restrictions before the Supreme Court could be drawn into the fray. The ruling reflects a now-familiar tension in American democracy: the executive branch's desire to reshape electoral rules meeting the judiciary's role as a check on that power. Though the legal battle is far from settled, the decision ensures that ballots cast by mail will continue under existing rules while the appeals process — and the election calendar — press