Supreme Court says US Postal Service can’t be sued

WASHINGTON (AP) – A division Supreme Court On Tuesday, he ruled that the Americans could not sue the US Postal Serviceeven when employees deliberately refuse to deliver mail.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices ruled against a Texas homeowner, Lebene Konan, who alleges her mail was intentionally withheld for two years. Konan, who is black, says racial bias played a role in the postal workers’ actions.

Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a majority of five conservative justices, said the federal law that generally protects the Postal Service from lawsuits for missing, lost or undelivered mail includes “intentional nondelivery of mail.”

In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that while the protection from suit is broad, it does not extend to situations where the decision not to deliver the mail “was motivated by malicious reasons.” Justice Neil Gorsuch joined his three liberal colleagues in their dissent.

President Donald Trump’s Republican administration had warned that a ruling in Konan’s favor would have led to a flood of similar lawsuits against the postal service running out of money.

Konan, who is also a real estate agent and insurance agent, claims that two employees at a post office in Euless, Texas, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, deliberately did not deliver mail belonging to her and her tenants because, she claims, they did not like that she was black and owned multiple properties.

According to court documents, the dispute began when Konan discovered that the key to the mailbox at one of its rental properties had been changed without its knowledge, preventing it from collecting and delivering mail from the box’s tenants. When she contacted the local post office, she was told she would not receive a new key or regular delivery until she proved she owned the property. She did so, according to the documents, but the mail problems continued, despite the USPS inspector general’s order to deliver the mail.

Konan alleges that employees marked some of the mail as undeliverable or returned to sender. Konan and his tenants did not receive important mail such as bills, medications and car titles, according to the lawsuit. Konan also claims she lost rental income because some tenants moved out due to the situation.

After filing dozens of complaints with postal authorities, Konan finally filed a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, which authorizes certain lawsuits against the government. The case concerned the scope of the law’s special postal exemption.

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