WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court dominated Tuesday the U.S. Postal Service is shielded from being sued even if its workers deliberately fail to deliver the mail.
In a 5-4 resolution, the courtroom stated Congress in 1946 had barred lawsuits “arising out of the loss, miscarriage, or negligent transmission of letters or postal matter,” and that features mail that’s stolen or misdirected by postal workers.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the courtroom, stated the regulation broadly bars complaints involving misplaced or lacking mail.
“A ‘miscarriage of mail’ contains failure of the mail to arrive at its meant vacation spot, no matter the service’s intent or the place the mail goes as an alternative,” he stated.
The ruliing is a setback however not a ultimate defeat for Lebene Konan, a Texas actual property agent who’s Black. She had sued contending white postal carriers refused to deliver her mail to two homes the place she rented rooms.
She didn’t stay at both property however stated she stayed there “from time to time.”
She first complained to the publish workplace in Euless, Texas, after she discovered the mail service had modified the listed proprietor on a central postal field from Konan’s identify to a tenant’s identify.
After two years of frustration, she sued the United States in 2022 alleging the Postal Service had deliberately and wrongly withheld her mail. She sought damages for emotional misery, a lack of rental earnings and for racial discrimination.
Her declare of racial bias was dismissed by a federal choose and a U.S. appeals courtroom and didn’t determine in the Supreme Court’s resolution.
Nevertheless, the fifth Circuit Court dominated she might go ahead together with her swimsuit alleging she was a sufferer of intentional misconduct on the a part of postal workers.
The Biden and Trump administrations urged the courtroom to hear the case and to reject lawsuits against the Postal Service based mostly on claims of intentional wrongdoing.
They stated the fifth Circuit’s ruling might “open the floodgates of litigation.” They famous the Postal Service delivers about 113 billion items of mail per 12 months and receives about 335,000 complaints over misplaced mail and different issues.
“We maintain that the postal exception covers suits against the United States for the intentional nondelivery of mail,” Thomas stated. “We don’t determine whether or not all of Konan’s claims are barred.”
Becoming a member of Thomas to restrict lawsuits against the Postal Service had been Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated the regulation refers to a “loss” or “miscarriage” of the mail, which suggests negligence.
“As we speak, the courtroom holds that one exception — the postal exception — prevents people from recovering for accidents based mostly on a postal worker’s intentional misconduct, together with when an worker maliciously withholds their mail,” Sotomayor wrote.
Becoming a member of her had been Justices Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
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