North Carolina attorney general files lawsuit against U.S. Postal Service
August 21, 2020
Attorney General Josh Stein announced Friday that he has filed a lawsuit against the United States Postal Service.
The lawsuit is challenging actions taken by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that makes it harder for North Carolinians and plaintiff states to “conduct free and fair elections in the manner plaintiff states have chosen.”
Attorneys general from Pennsylvania, California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine and Massachusetts have joined him in filing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also asks the court to reverse the changes brought by DeJoy that delay mail delivery. These changes include:
- Prohibiting late or extra trips by postal workers that are necessary to deliver mail on time.
- Requiring carriers to adhere to start and stop times regardless of whether all the mail for their route has arrived or been delivered.
- Limiting overtime.
“But we especially need the postal service to be delivering mail on time during a pandemic and weeks before an election that will see more North Carolinians voting by mail than ever before,” Stein said in a press release. “The postmaster general’s recent statements are not enough. We need binding commitments that restore the postal service’s operations.”
The lawsuit alleges that the postal service and the postmaster general violated the Postal Reorganization Act, the elections clause and the electors clause of the U.S. Constitution, and the 26th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Last week, the postal service sent letters to many states, including North Carolina, stating it could not guarantee the delivery of ballots in accordance with state laws.
The full complaint can be found here.
