On August 24, the Supreme Court granted a government request to stay a district court injunction that had blocked sections of Executive Order 14399, which imposes new security requirements on mail-in ballots. It's the second such stay in a matter of days, following an earlier SCOTUS move pausing a related injunction.
The practical effect landed fast: a federal judge in Massachusetts, who had herself issued one of the blocked injunctions, said she was 'compelled by the Supreme Court's ruling' to lift it, clearing the way for the Postal Service to move ahead with the new mail-ballot rules in time for the midterm elections.
Whatever you think of the underlying policy, the timeline here is the story: a major change to how mail ballots are handled, cleared by the courts with the election calendar already running. Elections officials in affected states now have a compressed window to implement it.