Initiative & Referendum Institute v U.S. Postal Service

Initiative & Referendum Institute v. United States Postal Service is a federal lawsuit brought by the Initiative & Referendum Institute against the United States Postal Service. This case began in 2000 and is currently being appealed to Supreme Court of the United States.

At issue in the case is whether the USPS may constitutionally ban petition circulators for collecting signatures while standing on post office sidewalks. For the purposes of the lawsuit, the relevant sidewalks have been divided into these two categories:

1. Sidewalks parallel to streets: This part of the case has already been heard and the US Court of Appeals decided in favor of the IRI in August 2005.
2. Sidewalks that are known as "interior post office sidewalks": This was decided in favor of USPS in September 2010 by US District Court. The decision is currently being appealed by the IRI to Supreme Court of the United States.

Effects of case

If the I&R Institute wins access to interior sidewalks, petitioners will be able to petition in front of Post Offices. This is a very important feature of direct democracy and Freedom of Speech. When petitioners are not allowed to petition on public property, they often resort to petitioning in private property like shopping malls.

Timeline

• June 25, 1998: The U.S. Postal Service implements a regulation that banned petitioning on all post office sidewalks.

• June 1, 2000: The Initiative & Referendum Institute filed Initiative & Referendum Institute v. United States Postal Service.

• July 26, 2000: Federal district judge Richard Roberts, a Clinton appointee, held oral arguments in the case.

• August 1, 2000: Judge Roberts decided that in order to make a decision, a trial on facts would have to be held.

• October 8–17, 2002: A trial was held before Judge Roberts.

• December 31, 2003: Judge Roberts issued his decision, upholding the USPS ban.

• The Initiative & Referendum Institute appealed.

• February 8, 2005: The D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals heard the case.

• August 9, 2005: The D.C. Circuit handed down a decision that stated that because postal sidewalks that are parallel to streets are public fora, the ban was invalid. The D.C. Circuit sent the case back to the district court to re-evaluate the decision so as to come to a decision about interior sidewalks.

• Judge Roberts said he needed more evidence to issue a ruling on interior sidewalks.

• August 2007: Parties of both sides of the lawsuit sent a questionnaire to a randomly chosen list of thousands of postmasters to learn how much First Amendment activity takes place on post office interior sidewalks.

:* The questionnaires were returned, results were collated and the disputing parties filed briefs arguing that the evidence supports their side.

• As of July 2009, no decision had been reached.

• On September 8, 2010 a U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the USPS. IRI appealed to Supreme Court of the United States.

• As of July 19, 2011, all briefs have been filed in the appeal to SCOTUS.

References

Portions of this article have been adopted from Ballotpedia.