The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court for permission to resume its efforts to restrict mail voting in the lead-up to the midterms. Administration lawyers asked the justices to clear the way for a new rule that prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from delivering ballots to voters in states that do not share voter data with the federal agency. The rule would also require the agency to review ballot envelopes for compliance with new standards before accepting it. In the emergency filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that a lower court freeze on the plan would impose “serious irreparable harm on the federal government, the states themselves, and the voting public.”

The emergency request to the Supreme Court is the second time in recent weeks that the court has been asked to weigh in on efforts by President Trump’s mail ballot plans. Previously, a majority of the court said a legal challenge was premature because the administration had not yet finalized its plans. But the Postal Service published its plans in August, and a lower court judge has since blocked key parts of the plan from going into effect for the November election. The administration’s emergency appeal came hours after a federal judge in Massachusetts expressed concerns that the plans could cause “major disenfranchisement.”

Judge Indira Talwani had imposed a temporary block on the plan, which the administration appealed. Rather than allow that process to play out, the administration is now taking the highly unusual step of trying to skip ahead and get immediate intervention from the Supreme Court. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signaled the court would deal with the issue on a speedy but not immediate timeline. She asked the challengers to respond by Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Sophia Lin Lakin of the ACLU called the rule “an unconstitutional attempt to upend mail voting on the eve of an election.” A Postal Service official said the agency was making “refinements” to the new ballot screening system and expected to make it available “for voluntary use by sometime next week.” The legal battle began after President Trump in March signed an executive order announcing plans to restrict mail voting and create lists of citizens in each state.