Opinion ID: 2055856
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Conduct of the Postal authorities in Westbrook

Text: Our attention is called first to the issue of whether the conduct of the Postal officers in Westbrook constituted an illegal seizure of Defendant's envelopes. Federal statutes forbid willful obstruction of the passage of mail (18 U.S.C.A. § 1701), the taking of any letter out of the post office with the design to obstruct the correspondence or to pry into the secrets of another or to open such mail (18 U.S.C.A. § 1702), or the unlawful detaining or opening of any letter entrusted to him by any Postal Service employee (18 U.S.C.A. § 1703). The Postal officials and employees in Westbrook made no search but, in permitting the Customs officer to take the envelopes sent to the Defendant into his possession, they did detain that mail and obstruct its passage. However, in this action, they were merely cooperating with the Customs officer in facilitating the Customs officer's examination of the letters. The issue really is whether 19 U.S.C.A. § 482 authorized the Customs officer to take possession of the envelopes in the Westbrook post office, which we will later discuss. In light of the circumstances causing the week and a half detention of Defendant's envelopes, we are not persuaded that such was excessive. [2]