OK, what am I missing? Why isn't this argument being made by both Democrats AND Republicans?

[no_hypocrisy]

By slowing down the flow of mail by Postmaster DeJoy, is this deliberate act a violation of the Interstate Commerce Clause? It's interfering needlessly with the commerce between states. The voting aspect sucks too. But what about my thesis? Isn't this a violation of the Constitution?

[SlogginThroughIt]

1. I think all we can prove is

I think so far all we can prove is that they have ended overtime and other items like that.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Let me give specifics:

Businesses have lost money because their services are impeded by a backlog of letters and packages not timely delivered.

Credit cards are delivered late and their payments are delivered late.

More or less the same for any billing from any business.

Life-sustaining medications are not timely delivered with no prediction of delivery.

Ads for businesses are late in delivery, leaving the consumer less than half the period to know about the sale and go shopping.

And there is more.

[SlogginThroughIt]

8. Right but all we can prove is they are limiting overtime.

I don’t know what else we can prove and I don’t think we can say that the workers have to work overtime.

[unblock]

3. the constitution doesn't specify performance metrics for the post office.

it's not unconstitutional for the post office to be run poorly.
it's not unconstitutional for the post office to stop using machinery or to stop paying overtime.
it's not even unconstitutional for the post office to cut staff in half.
if they say their goal is merely to deliver first class mail within 3 weeks, that's not unconstitutional.

these are all horrible *policy* decisions, but they are not unconstitutional.

the constitution calls for the creation of the post office. so completely shutting it down would be unconstitutional. but short of that, they can do all kinds of damage. the constitutional remedy is to vote the bastards out.

the federal government has the right to regulate interstate commerce. that doesn't mean it's required to meet any particular performance metrics in the post office.


arguably, at some point, such terrible management amounts to high crimes and misdemeanors (abuse/misuse/neglect of office), so impeachment and removal would be in order. but that seems highly unlikely, because... republicans.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. But wouldn't you have a Conflict of Laws situation here?

The Post Office is negatively and harmfully affecting interstate commercial commerce. Doesn't matter who's doing it. It's being done.

[brooklynite]

6. No business is obligated to use the post office...

No business is entitled to overnight/1 day/2 day/3 day etc. delivery service

[unblock]

7. the post office helps enable interstate commerce. it's just doing so less well than it did before.

i know that sounds facile and/or snarky, but i'm serious. delivering mail, however poorly, helps interstate commerce.

here's a scenario -- i know this isn't exactly what's going on, but hypothetically, the post office could lease some expensive, but fantastic equipment that really improves delivery times and reliability and so on. then businesses adapt to rely on this service. then at some point the post office says, nah, too expensive, we're not renewing those expensive leases. at that point, the post office performance declines markedly, but maybe that's actually good public policy depending on how expensive those leases were, or maybe the private company wanted to hike up the lease costs. my understanding of what's actually going on is that the post office owns some great sorting machines and workers are being told not to use them, which is something else entirely.

point is, there may be legitimate reasons why postal performance might go up or go down, and that's not unconstitutional, just the result of (possibly bad) policy decisions and so on. come to think of it, they could use the pandemic as an excuse if the machines are deemed a health risk and sorting by hand is less of the health risk for employees, that's just a policy decision. i haven't heard that excuse, and i doubt the machines are a great health risk, but it would make it clear that it's just a policy decision.

i agree that many businesses rely on the postal service, and many depend on the service being as reliable and timely as it had been for a long time, but it's not a constitutional requirement for the postal service to not change to cater to those businesses.

the post office could also raise the price of a first class stamp to $5. that would render it useless for many, many people and businesses. horrible policy decision, but not unconstitutional. unless they raised the price so high it amounted to shutting down the post office entirely.

[Hortensis]

4. Wonder how many lawsuits are filed, being filed and will be

filed related just to interstate commerce. Good point.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. How a slowdown in the Postal Service is impacting small businesses

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213887643

‘We see it here every day’


“They are the reason we have this company,” co-founder Mitch Goldstone said an interview with Yahoo Finance’s. The company, which digitizes physical photos, says it has digitized and sent 600 million pictures back to customers.

But in recent weeks, Goldstone has seen an array of problems as new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has begun to implement operational changes that are slowing deliveries. “We see it here everyday and we get it in the customer service phone calls,” Goldstone said.

The reports are similar across the country. Small businesses that rely heavily on shipping products are reporting problems after years of reliable service, including some in DeJoy’s home state of North Carolina.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/we-see-it-here-every-day-how-a-slowdown-in-the-postal-service-is-impacting-small-businesses-212145143.html