Racial bias case before SCOTUS could 'disrupt critical function' of mail delivery

A case out of Texas is heading to the Supreme Court and it centers on a serious claim

A landlord says the Postal Service refused to deliver her mail because she's black

She says that resulted in lost rent, tenant departures, and missed deliveries including

medications, tax statements, and car titles. On Monday, the nation's highest court agreed to hear

her case, a move that could chip away at long-standing legal protections for the Postal

service. Under federal law, you can sue the U.S. government for damages if a federal employee's

negligence caused injury, property damage, or death, as long as an individual would be held

responsible in the same type of situation. But there's an important exception when it comes to

mail. The law says you can't sue over lost, mishandled, or delayed mail, including letters

that never got delivered. The question in this case is, does that exception still apply if a

postal worker intentionally refuses to deliver mail and not just by accident

A federal appeals court in Louisiana ruled that USPS's immunity didn't apply in Laban

Conan's case, allowing her lawsuit to move forward. The Department of Justice says the appeals court is opening the door for people to sue USPS when they don get their mail on time saying Congress enacted the postal exception specifically to protect the critical function of mail delivery from such disruptive litigation

Conan sued USPS under the Federal Tort Claims Act and filed civil rights claims against the

workers, accusing them of discrimination and intentional misconduct. A district court dismissed

her case, saying USPS was protected by sovereign immunity and that her equal protection claims

lack sufficient evidence. But the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed part of that ruling

saying USPS cannot claim immunity in cases of intentional misconduct. The court found the

workers did not lose or misdeliver mail, but instead chose not to deliver it at all, making

it an intentional act not protected by the postal exception in federal law. However, the court upheld

the dismissal of her civil rights claims, saying she failed to show that white property owners were

treated differently and that employees of the same agency cannot legally conspire under existing

case law. The Supreme Court will now decide whether this type of claim falls under the

federal exemption protecting USPS or if it can move forward in court. For Straight Arrow News

I'm Kaylee Carey. For more unbiased fact-based news, download the Straight Arrow News mobile app or head to san.com