Opinion ID: 2481
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: (A) The Post Office

Text: Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution provides that Congress shall have power... [t]o establish Post Offices and post Roads. Congress has delegated the power to create Post Offices to the USPS, 39 U.S.C. § 404(a)(3), awarded the USPS a monopoly over the carriage of letter mail, see Private Express Statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1693-1699; Air Courier Conf. of Am. v. Am. Postal Workers Union AFL-CIO, 498 U.S. 517, 519, 111 S.Ct. 913, 112 L.Ed.2d 1125 (1991), and forbidden the establishment of post offices without authority from the Postal Service, 18 U.S.C. § 1729. [2] Congress has also directed the Postal Service to serve as nearly as practicable the entire population of the United States. 39 U.S.C. § 403(a). That directive includes establish[ing] and maintain[ing] postal facilities of such character and in such locations, that postal patrons throughout the Nation will, consistent with reasonable economies of postal operations, have ready access to essential postal services. 39 U.S.C. § 403(b)(3). This entails a maximum degree of effective and regular postal services to rural areas, communities, and small towns [even] where post offices are not self-sustaining. 39 U.S.C. § 101(b).