so does anyone know why the USPS website https://my.usps.com is apparently completely down?
(just confirmed a change of address - having such a site go down is a bit worrying)
That address is dead. however I can get in via usps.com
...... and in other news:
Supreme Court rules the Postal Service can’t be sued, even when mail is intentionally not delivered
Keep in mind that the Supreme Court ruling simply recognizes the law that Congress wrote specifically to ensure that such a lawsuit can't be brought.
So, it's a matter for Congress to address if they wish. They can update the statute at any time to close that exception.
The ruling wasn't particularly insane. The law may be, in which case Congress should fix it, but the ruling just applied the law.
I often find that it's important to go directly to the ruling instead of quoting some reporter writing about the ruling, because so often they get the story completely backwards.
In any case, what you wrote there gets it backwards🙂
The way the US system works is not about shielding from lawsuits but about actively providing access to federal courts. Access is provided through law. If you want to go to federal court then you have to cite a federal law that grants you that access.
To put it another way, the default is not permitted unless denied, it is denied unless permitted.
What the Court said here is that the law granting access was explicitly not available by the language of the law. It wasn't about shielding, again that's not how this works, it was about just not providing that remedy.
If we would like that remedy to be available then Congress can provide it any time they want to.
@volkris @jeff perhaps - but given that 4 Supreme Court justices dissented (and see the quote I cited) I don't think it is as clear cut as you are arguing. And yes who has standing to sue who is an important technicality - but it also very unusual to not allow a remedy in the case of malicious reasons - in general at least historically courts were very reluctant to put anyone or any institution above the law especially for malicious actions - that this is happening today should not be celebrated
@volkris @jeff I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think it’s as clear cut as you describe. “In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that while the protection against lawsuits is broad, it does not extend to situations when the decision not to deliver mail “was driven by malicious reasons.” Justice Neil Gorsuch joined his three liberal colleagues in dissent.”
Gorsuch isn’t particularly liberal but shielding malicious behavior hasn’t been how the law worked usually. And it’s bad for laws to do so.