A woman in Texas has brought a case to the Supreme Court that could change how Americans are allowed to sue the federal government—especially the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Lebene Konan, a Black woman who works as a real estate agent and insurance professional, claims that postal workers stopped delivering mail to her rental properties because of her race. According to her, the local post office even went so far as to change the lock on her P.O. box and stopped all deliveries for several months. She believes the reason for this treatment was because the postal carrier and postmaster “did not like the idea that a Black person” owned the properties in that neighborhood.
Konan filed a lawsuit based on a law that has been around since 1946. This law gives people the ability to sue the government when federal workers cause harm or damage. But there’s a catch. The law includes some exceptions. One of those exceptions says that if your issue has to do with lost or misdelivered mail, you can’t sue. The main issue in this case is whether Konan’s experience falls under that exception—or whether the court will agree that her complaint is about discrimination, not just lost mail.
At first, a judge in Texas sided with the government and dismissed the case. That court said her lawsuit couldn’t go forward because it dealt with USPS mail delivery. But when the case went up to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the judges there disagreed. They ruled that Konan should be allowed to bring her case to court. Now, the Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling, saying it opens the door for too many lawsuits.
