HONEST--CROSS MY HEART!
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It is in the breaking news sidebar!
Posted on 04/16/2003 3:43:24 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Postal Service overstepped its bounds when it told a North Carolina customer he couldn't mail Christian literature to his son, who is serving as an Army National Guardsman in the Persian Gulf, a legal watchdog group said.
Postal regulations that prohibit the mailing of "religious materials contrary to the Islamic faith" to Persian Gulf countries are unconstitutional, said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a public interest law firm based in Charlottesville, Va.
"What you have here is a soldier who is fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom for the very freedoms that we have in this country, and he is being denied those freedoms, and I don't think that we should allow that," Whitehead said.
Whitehead filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the Postal Service violated the free speech and religious rights of National Guardsman Daniel Moody and those of his father, Jack Moody of Lenoir, N.C., when postal officials told the father he couldn't send Christian comic books and a book of Bible verses to his son in Kuwait.
However, the Postal Service said customs officials of the host country, not the United States, impose the regulation, and the postal employees were simply relaying information. Moreover, the host country's primary concern is about items of mass quantities going to the general population, not individual mailings.
"If you're mailing to an individual soldier, it should not be an issue," said Mark Saunders, a Postal Service spokesman in Washington.
Indeed, the Postal Service has updated the guidance for mailings to read: "Although religious materials contrary to the Islamic faith are prohibited in bulk quantities, items for the personal use of the addressee are permissible," Saunders noted.
The restriction, included in the Postal Service's regulations for overseas military mail, was adopted around the time of the Gulf War in 1991 and originates with Customs regulations in many Persian Gulf countries, Saunders said.
One of the countries is Kuwait, which enforces strict regulations on religious materials, alcohol, pornography and firearms.
Whitehead said a postal supervisor in Lenoir rebuffed Jack Moody when he tried to send the items, claiming it was against regulations pertaining to overseas military mail. Daniel Moody's Army National Guard unit - the 1454th Transportation Company based in Concord - was mobilized to Kuwait in January.
The complaint charges that the U.S. Postal Service regulation violates the family's rights to exercise their faith under the First Amendment, Fifth Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The regulation also endorses the Islamic faith over all other religions, Whitehead said.
"Our government, no matter what any other country says, cannot prefer one faith over all other faiths," he said.
Whitehead said he is seeking a judgment invalidating the regulation and an injunction prohibiting the Postal Service from enforcing it. The Postal Service has until May 2 to answer the complaint.
E-mail a news tip to Lawrence Morahan.
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Yeah, relaying information in the form of imposing a regulation.
Better CYA better than this, guys, the fit is about to hit the shan....
Indeed, the Postal Service has updated the guidance for mailings to read: "Although religious materials contrary to the Islamic faith are prohibited in bulk quantities, items for the personal use of the addressee are permissible," Saunders noted.
The updated guidance was what I saw in the DOD information on how to mail packages. The problem is one overzealous postal clerk, not the regulations.
How about just privatizing the whole U.S.P.S. mess!?
These people have a monopoly over our mail system.
It's the sham of the century.
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