The deadline is the executive order's own. Executive Order 14399, published at 91 Federal Register 17125 on March 31, 2026, directs at section 3(d) that any final rule issued under section 3 'shall be issued no later than 120 days from the date of' the order [1].
The First Circuit, in the opinion it entered on July 25, spells out the arithmetic: 'meaning by July 29, 2026' [1]. Wednesday.
The rule itself is in an odd place. The Postal Service published its proposal, 'Ballot Mail for Federal Elections,' on June 2, and the comment period closed on July 2 [2]. As of Sunday evening no final rule appears on the Federal Register's public-inspection list - the queue documents enter before they publish.
A related Postal Service privacy notice, published July 17, is explicit about the dependency: the new system of records 'will not take effect if no final rule is issued' [2].
Meanwhile the money has already moved at the state level, and the litigation record captures it. As of April 2026, Massachusetts alone had already purchased three million dollars' worth of envelopes for mail-in ballots [1]. A Rhode Island official said changing the state's envelope order would cost tens of thousands of dollars that was not budgeted [1].
The government conceded that design changes to mail-ballot envelopes, or adding Intelligent Mail barcodes, would add costs to the plaintiff states [1].
That concession is why the deadline matters even under an injunction. The rule is currently blocked as to 23 states and the District of Columbia. The order's clock is not.
