USPS loses appeal of FOIA case
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has told the US Postal Service to comply with the Freedom of Information Act, and provide information about the location, phone numbers, business hours, and final collection times of every US Post Office. The USPS had claimed that the information was “information of a commercial nature” and therfore not subject to public dislosure. This despite the fact that the information is already available on the USPS’s “Post Office Locator” web page.
The USPS contended that revealing the information en masse would, among other things, draw customers away from the USPS web site, and undermine its “business relationship with the company, Switchboard, Inc., which maintains and operates the Post Office Locator website”. The USPS’s “Web Specialist”, however, admitted that “USPS pays nothing to Switchboard, Inc., for its web services, but permits Switchboard to redirect Post Office Locator users to other Switchboard client sites.”
The court held that “Post office names, addresses, telephone numbers, hours of operation and final collection times are not ‘information of a commercial nature’”. The court did not decide “whether the complete USPS database from which Carlson requested an electronic version of this particular information is commercial nor whether the USPS database may be exempt from disclosure. In so ruling we do not preclude further consideration by the district court nor do we preclude consideration of reasonable conditions.”
The case now goes back to the District Court for reconsideration based on the Appeals Court decision. The USPS, having lost the appeal, will be required to pay Carlson’s costs for the Appeals Court proceedings.
October 16th, 2007 06:57
The Republi-Nazis have won!
“In Germany, they came first for the Communists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . .
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”
Martin Niemöller
This mis-Administration has soiled on our U.S. Constitution.
October 16th, 2007 10:55
Another classic example of having a monopoly! Would Wal-Mart do this?
October 16th, 2007 18:48
The Ninth Circuit is the most liberal Democrat court Ed.
They protested in support of radicals in the streets,
They entered our courts where perpetrators became victims,
They taught in our schools and brainwashed our children,
They gave the news on TV and lies became truth,
They took union dues and gave to their own,
They entered our churches and wrong became right,
They entered our homes to destroy them,
They said a woman’s body is hers to destroy,
They cuddle the communists in the name of human rights,
They coddle the dictators in the name of the UN,
They appease the Islamists to prove West is wrong,
They walk the halls of congress to silence free speech,
They offer health care for everyone in exchange for your paycheck
They come in all colors but they’re red on the inside.
Not enough people are speaking out, now God and Freedom in America is almost history.