Washington Post -- Efforts to Block Junk Mail Slowed by the Postal Service

[Omaha Steve]

http://forestethics.org/article.php?id=2092



Postal Service Argues Against Registries to State Lawmakers

by Lyndsey Layton
March 19th, 2008

Chris Pearson, a state legislator in Vermont, had a sense that the people were with him when he proposed a bill last November to allow residents to block junk mail.

He got media attention, radio interview requests and e-mails from constituents eager to stop the credit card offers, furniture catalogues and store fliers that increasingly clog their mailboxes.

Then came the pushback from the postmasters, who told Pearson and other lawmakers that "standard" mail, the post office's name for junk mail, has become the lifeblood of the U.S. Postal Service and that jobs depend on it.

"The post office and the business groups are pretty well-organized," said Pearson, whose bill remains in a committee and has not been scheduled for a vote.

Barred by law from lobbying, the Postal Service is nonetheless trying to make its case before a growing number of state legislatures that are weighing bills to create Do Not Mail registries, which are similar to the popular National Do Not Call Registry.

The agency has printed 3,000 "information packets" about the economic value of standard mail, with specific data for each of the 18 states that have considered a Do Not Mail Registry. It has dispatched postmasters to testify before legislative committees around the country.

FULL story at link.

On March 11, we launched a petition to form a Do Not Mail Registry in the United States. Our goal is to create a national registry that gives citizens a simple and comprehensive choice to restrict unwanted junk mail. Check out the national news coverage. Thanks to your support, our petition has generated more than 30,000 signatures in just two weeks. If you haven't already signed the petition, you can add your name here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=nl5gTK4V2T6bevarHsf9raGPUP185eym

And don't forget to tell your friends and family about it, too: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/281/t/2411/tellafriend.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=2539

[tinrobot]

1. How much paper do we waste on junk mail?

How much petroleum does it take to deliver it all?

Junk mail is just that -- junk. It's a total waste of the planet's resources.

[happyslug]

2. The biggest problem is the Postal Service is a FEDERAL AGENCY.

And as such State laws do NOT affect it, unless Congress of the Postal Service itself agrees to it. The classic case was about 20 years ago, various communities outlawed cluster boxes for new developments, at the time when the Postal Service was going to Cluster boxes to cut costs. The Postal Service put in the Cluster boxes against the local Zoning laws outlawing them and the Zoning Commission sued. The Postal Service won on the grounds it was a FEDERAL AGENCY and as such did NOT have to follow any local law it does not want to (Or Congress told it had to follow). Since the Postal Service NEVER accepted these Zoning Laws, and Congress NEVER addressed the issue, the Zoning Laws did NOT apply to the Cluster Boxes installed for use by the Postal Service.

Now if the Postal Service is ever privatized, then such local laws will apply to the privatized Postal Service, but as long as the Postal Service is a Federal Agency, it does NOT have to follow such local or state laws. The States can pass these as much as the states like, the Postal Authority will ignore them.

This also includes any State or Local law that prohibits a business from mailing to people. Again that is interference with Postal Regulation, which is a FEDERAL Function. Congress was given the power "To establish post offices and post roads;" Under Article I, Section 7 of the US Constitution. Congress delegated that power to the US Postal Service. Delivery of mail has been a Post Office function since the Civil War (In Urban Areas, later in Rural areas as roads improve after about 1880). Thus the argument can be made any STATE or LOCAL Rule that interferes with Delivery of the Mail violates the Constitution for only CONGRESS can make such a rule (Do to the fact it will affect how the Postal Service operates).

The contrary argument is weak, i.e. the State regulation is NOT a regulation on the Postal Service but on people using the Postal Service. i.e. No ban on the Postal Service from Delivering the Junk Mail, but a ban on Business from sending Junk Mail through the Postal Service. That is like a State saying a person can protest but NOT anywhere where the protest can be heard (Technically keeping protests legal, but making it useless to protest). The same with the ban on using the Postal Service, it is a weak argument to permit the states to ban people and businesses from using the Postal Service while saying it is legal for the Postal Service to delver the same mail.

No, for this to work Congress will have to pass it. The states can NOT make the Postal Service NOT deliver the mail, and how else do you enforce it? If someone is on a "Do Not mail List" and I mail them anyway how does the ban get enforced? Right now the "Do NOT CALL LIST" is enforced by the various telephone and internet providers, but there is NOT federal protection for such providers, unlike the Postal Service which clearly has such federal protection. Good in theory, but weak on application given the nature of the Postal Service.