During a conference call this afternoon in which the Business Journal participated, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, New York City and San Francisco city and county in California have filed suit to reverse changes made at the U.S. Post Office and block further changes.
James charged that President Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are trying to “dismantle” the U.S. Postal Service.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia and names as defendants President Donald J. Trump, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the United States Postal Service (USPS).
The lawsuit asks the court to order that:
Ӣ the changes already made in USPS policies are unlawful and are vacated and set aside; Ӣ the changes are not authorized by Congress and conflict with CongressӪ clear statutory mandates to the Postal Service; and
Ӣ the changes are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit asks the court to enjoin the defendants and all their officers, employees and agents and anyone acting in concert with them from implementing, applying or taking any action whatsoever to further the changes.
It wants the court to issue an order to block the defendants from implementing any substantial nationwide changes in service without first seeking an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission.
The lawsuit also asks the court to award the plaintiffs costs of the lawsuit including attorneys”™ fees and also award any other relief the court wishes.
James said, “This USPS slowdown is nothing more than a voter suppression tactic. These authoritarian actions are not only jeopardizing our democracy and fundamental right to vote, but the immediate health and financial well-being of Americans across the nation.”
James pointed to DeJoy’s actions in ordering the removal of mailboxes and mail sorting machines, curtailing overtime for USPS staff, prohibiting late and extra trips that ensure mail is delivered on a timely and consistent basis, institutionalizing other policies that cause further delays, and creating confusion regarding the election mail standards the USPS will follow in advance of the November general election.
The lawsuit charges that the Trump administration tried to put the USPS in a financial stranglehold by having Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin interfere with its independence.
The lawsuit states, “President Trump began a public campaign against the agency and mail-in voting. As more states began to adopt expanded mail-in voting procedures due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus and associated state and local lockdowns, the president attacked the procedures as encouraging fraud.”
The suit alleges that changes in USPS operations are in line with Trump”™s repeated and public statements in opposition to mail-in voting and his intent to impair the delivery of mailed ballots by cutting off the resources needed for the USPS to operate because mailed ballots would specifically harm Republicans”™ abilities to win elections, even going so far as to make clear last month in a Tweet that “Republicans, in particular, cannot let this happen!”
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York spoke during the conference call and referred to a bill passed in the House designed to provide $25 billion in new funding for the USPS.
“Postmaster General DeJoy has no intention of working to reverse the other damages that his directives have inflicted. He made this clear on Monday, when he testified before Congress that he would not allow the return of mail-sorting machines that were removed. That is why the House of Representatives took swift action by passing legislation to block Postmaster General DeJoy”™s directives and fully fund the Postal Service,” Nadler said.
Other U.S. representatives from New York also participated in the conference call. All Democrats, they were Brian Higgins, Yvette Clarke, Paul Tonko, Grace Meng and Joseph Morelle.
The lawsuit alleged that post offices facilities in New York City have seen their ability to sort mail cut by more than 300,000 pieces of mail per hour as a result of high-speed sorting machines being removed from service. Several hundred of the machines have been removed from service nationwide.
“This decreased sorting capacity requires postal facilities to redistribute mail to its remaining machines for sorting or sort the mail manually. In some cases, mail left sitting overnight also must be re-sorted in the morning in order to combine the sitting mail with newly-arrived mail into the proper ‘delivery point sequence’ ”” the delivery order used by mail carriers,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said that 52 of the sorting machines have been pulled from service in New York state. It said that in the Syracuse area, delivery of some classes of mail has been delayed for up to week. In the Baychester postal facility in the Bronx, boxes of mail that were scheduled for delivery on Aug. 7 were still sitting there on Aug. 14, according to the lawsuit.
James said that in New York, the number of voters expected to cast absentee ballots in the upcoming election will be at least ten times greater than in the 2016 election. James said that the postal changes are “a thinly veiled attempt to advance the president’s own political agenda.”
Why keep pouring money into that dinosaur aka the post office? Haven’t the Democrats realized its a pit? A losing money pit that is? How many Billions do the Democrats want to waste on the post office?
Joe Biden and the Congressional Democrats are all wrong for America if these are their priorities.
The reason it is under attack is because it is one of the last working Unions that actually takes care of its retirees after the fact. As well as the clearly stated attacks and attempted delays on voting by mail* specifically, which was even admitted to by Trump himself. This has nothing to do with a two party system, it’s about the american people and their rights. Everything comes by mail. Even Amazon and UPS and FedEx still have to work with the USPS and get a lot of their items shipped through or from the USPS. And yet youre talking about dismantling a job source for millions of people because to your insignificant self the USPS is obsolete, but yes blame a 2 party system.
*and unless youre a part of the electoral college your vote for president doesn’t even matter so I really do not understand why there is such an attack and a push on public voting all the damn time. Trump was the 5th person in history to be elected president even though he lost the public’s vote.
Dont you mean our taxes are propping up an antiquated government agency that no longer functions and lost its independence years ago when it started losing money? I dont want that and neither should you. Nobody uses the mail system anymore for a reason.
Electoral college exists like the senate does so that a few states dont control everything and monopolize our political system. Who cares if Hillary’s won in CA, NY and IL by lopsided totals? Its part of our system of checks and balances that Democrats just hate because they lose everytime.