“If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposal rule?” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the committee’s top Democrat, asked Steiner.
“Under our proposed regulation, no,” Steiner replied.
Earlier this year the Supreme Court just happened to rule that USPS can’t be sued for not delivering mail.
A divided Supreme Court sided with the federal government on Tuesday in U.S. Postal Service v. Konan, a dispute over mishandled mail. Writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Clarence Thomas explained that a law protecting the U.S. Postal Service from lawsuits over lost or miscarried mail bars lawsuits over mail that was intentionally misdelivered.
On Tuesday, the court sided with the government, holding that an intentional failure to deliver the mail falls within the FTCA’s postal exception. The ordinary meanings of both “miscarriage” and “loss” point the court to this conclusion, wrote Thomas in the majority opinion. “Because a ‘miscarriage’ includes any failure of mail to arrive properly, a person experiences a miscarriage of mail when his mail is delivered to his neighbor, held at the post office, or returned to the sender—regardless of why it happened,” he wrote. Similarly, “[w]hen Congress enacted the FTCA, the ‘loss’ of mail ordinarily meant a deprivation of mail, regardless of how the deprivation was brought about.”
States need to create a system where the ballots are mailed in a plain vanilla envelope, then.
The Hill is a little behind on this one. The court just struck down the EO and said postal service must continue to deliver ballots. In the article, Steiner claims he’s going to follow whatever the court decides, so let’s hope that’s the case.
It’s illegal. Postmaster should be removed.
Arrested
Go postal?
The Fuckery Advances
Does the constitution say that states must turn over absentee voter data in order to vote?
Genuine question: Does it say that the federal post office cannot filter the mail? Or that state rules for delivering specific kinds of mail the federal post must abide?
Nope, actually it says that states get to run and regulate their own elections.
