US/Postal Service

US/Postal Service
Parent organization	US
Headquarters	475 L'Enfant Plaza SWWashington, D.C. 20260-0004
Leader	United States Postmaster General
Type	Independent
Subgroups	•  Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service •  United States Postal Inspection Service •  United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General
Staff	617,254

As a quasi-governmental agency, it has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right to deliver first-class and third-class mail. Indeed, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision that the USPS was not a government-owned corporation, and therefore could not be sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The U.S. Supreme Court has also upheld the USPS's statutory monopoly on access to letter boxes against a First Amendment freedom of speech challenge; it thus remains illegal in the U.S. for anyone, other than the employees and agents of the USPS, to deliver mailpieces to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail."

Mass surveillance

The United States Postal Inspection Service has been engaging in a clandestine mass surveillance programme since 2001.

 

An event carried out

Event	Description
Mail Isolation Control and Tracking	A US mail program to photograph of the exterior of every piece of mail that is processed in the United States.

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References

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