{"id":32420,"date":"2013-02-03T12:14:25","date_gmt":"2013-02-03T19:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/03\/no-federalism-doesnt-work-this-way.html"},"modified":"2013-02-03T12:14:25","modified_gmt":"2013-02-03T19:14:25","slug":"no-federalism-doesnt-work-this-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/03\/no-federalism-doesnt-work-this-way.html","title":{"rendered":"No, Federalism doesn't work this way"},"content":{"rendered":"

The USPS certainly ought not be immune to fines from local governments for traffic violations. Like running red lights near schools.<\/p>\n

The claim is that the USPS, as a (quasi-)Federal agency, cannot be directly regulated by state and local governments — in this case, traffic laws. The USPS claims its drivers<\/i> are not immune, but in the case of traffic camera fines presented to the USPS for its drivers violations … well the USPS says they<\/i> can't be forced to pay, and they have (quoting the story) "no legal system in place to transfer liability from the Postal Service to an employee".<\/p>\n

Sounds like their problem. Meantime, pay the fines or get your vehicles booted.<\/p>\n

(Note — I do<\/i> support the federalism tenet that says that state and local laws cannot trump federal law. A state cannot set up a parallel state post office system, for example. But the function being described here — traffic violations — is not part and parcel (so to speak) of the USPS carrying out "its appointed rounds". The state or city is not impinging on a federal<\/i> function in enforcing its traffic laws, unless the USPS is claiming that the post office _must_run red lights to do its job. If the USPS cannot figure out how to allocate such fines down to the drivers in question, that doesn't mean the fines don't have to get paid.)<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Andrew Eva<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Trying to dismiss close to $700 in tickets for running red lights in a school zone,<\/b> the postal litigator has this to say:<\/p>\n

…\u00a0Postal Service enjoys federal immunity from state and local regulation. — Jennifer Breslin, Postal Litigator<\/i><\/p>\n

Unfortunately for her, East Cleveland disagrees and has a pretty reliable source.<\/p>\n

[Postal workers]\u00a0receive no special privileges or rights as a postal driver. — USPS Employee Safety Guide<\/i><\/p>\n

From the city that brought you\u00a0Woman drives on sidewalk to avoid school bus<\/a>
#clevelandohio<\/a> \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPostal Service lawyer claims immunity from traffic laws<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUSPS attorney claims Postal Service drivers have immunity from state and local laws\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The USPS certainly ought not be immune to fines from local governments for traffic violations. Like running red lights near schools. The claim is that the USPS, as a (quasi-)Federal agency, cannot be directly regulated by state and local governments — in this case, traffic laws. The USPS claims its drivers are not immune, but … Continue reading “No, Federalism doesn't work this way”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[309],"class_list":["post-32420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","tag-clevelandohio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8475,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/02\/variation_on_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":32420,"position":0},"title":"Variation on a Greeting Card Theme","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Nov-05 6:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The USPS is now offering an interesting (and very clever) combination of \"e-cards\" and postal service. 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And too many in Congress want the USPS to fail.(h\/t +Kee Hinckley)Reshared post from +laurie corzett\"The Inspector General, who conducted the study with the help of a team of experts in international postal banking as well as a former\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8761,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/21\/i_would_certain.html","url_meta":{"origin":32420,"position":4},"title":"I would certainly put a number of these on my envelopes","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Apr-06 8:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Worth1000 showcases people's ideas for new USPS postage stamps. Triffic stuff. (The Brady Bunch is a natural here.) 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