Law360 is providing free access to its coronavirus coverage to make sure all members of the legal community have accurate information in this time of uncertainty and change. Use the form below to sign up for any of our weekly newsletters. Signing up for any of our section newsletters will opt you in to the weekly Coronavirus briefing.
Sign up for our Delaware newsletter
You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:
Thank You!
Law360 (August 18, 2020, 8:22 PM EDT ) Attorneys general in Washington and Pennsylvania said Tuesday they were filing suit on behalf of a broad coalition of states challenging operational changes within the U.S. Postal Service, hours before the service announced it would halt further changes until after the November election.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said that changes to Postal Service operations, including the removal of mail sorting equipment and the elimination of overtime, represented an effort to suppress turnout for an election in which voters are expected to rely in record numbers on mail-in ballots as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"For partisan gain, President Trump is attempting to destroy a critical institution that is essential for millions of Americans," Ferguson said. "We rely on the Postal Service for our Social Security benefits, prescriptions — and exercising our right to vote. Our coalition will fight to protect the Postal Service and uphold the rule of law in federal court."
Meanwhile, embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy released a statement saying he was putting a halt to the changes, which he said began prior to his arrival at the service, until after Election Day.
"To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded," he said.
DeJoy left unclear, however, whether any of the changes already in place would be reversed before the election.
The lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Washington on Tuesday, which is expected to be followed by a similar suit in Pennsylvania in the coming days, would require the Postal Service to undo changes Ferguson claims were implemented without proper authority.
Specifically, Ferguson said the agency bypassed rules that any changes expected to impact mail service on a nationwide basis be submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission for review.
The states were thus denied an opportunity to participate in the required process of public notice and comment, Ferguson said.
In a statement announcing his intent to file suit against the Postal Service, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said:
"Recent post office changes have been implemented recklessly, before checking the law, and we will use our authority to stop them and help ensure that every eligible ballot is counted."
Shapiro said that DeJoy's announced suspension of further changes at Postal Service wasn't good enough.
"We need more than a statement, we need binding agreements," he said in a statement to Law360. "The postmaster general's statement, while positive, does not address the operational changes put in place in July at the heart of our lawsuit. Therefore, we'll continue to press our case through the legal process and hold DeJoy accountable going forward beyond the election."
The Washington challengers are represented by Noah Guzzo Purcell, Nathan Bays, Kristin Beneski, Andrew R.W. Hughes, Cristina Sepe, Emma Grunberg, Tera Heintz and Karl Smith of the Washington State Office of the Attorney General.
Counsel information for the federal government was not immediately available.
The case is State of Washington et al. v. Donald Trump et al., case number 1:20-cv-03127, before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.
--Editing by Michael Watanabe.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
