Currier v. Potter
| Decision Date | 12 August 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-35232.,02-35232. |
| Citation | 379 F.3d 716 |
| Parties | Carl A. CURRIER; David Bar; Willard Johnson; Seattle Housing and Resource Effort, a Washington non-profit corporation, individually and on behalf of others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John E. POTTER,<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL> Postmaster General of the United States, individually and in his official capacity; Dale E. Zinser, Seattle District Manager of the United States Postal Service, individually and in his official capacity; United States Postal Service, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
David Girard and Casey Trupin (argued), Seattle, WA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.
Robert D. McCallum, Assistant Attorney General, Barbara C. Biddle, and Irene M. Solet (argued), Attorneys, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.; John L. McKay, Jr., United States Attorney, Seattle, WA; Mary Anne Gibbons, General Counsel, David G. Karro, and Stephan J. Boardman, Attorneys, Civil Practice, United States Postal Service, Washington, D.C., for the defendants-appellees.
Caroline M. Brown and Thomas W. Beimers, Washington, D.C.; Maria Foscarinis, Pallavi Rai, and Jeremy Rosen, Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty in support of the plaintiffs-appellants.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington; Robert S. Lasnik, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-01-00156-RSL.
Before O'SCANNLAIN, GOULD, Circuit Judges, and BOLTON,*** District Judge.
We must decide various regulatory, statutory, and constitutional challenges to United States Postal Service policies regarding general delivery mail service and the provision of no-fee postal boxes to homeless persons.
Carl Currier, David Bar, and Willard Johnson are homeless persons in Seattle, Washington. Lacking physical addresses, they have found it difficult to receive mail. Although some homeless shelters will accept mail on behalf of residents, they will only hold mail for a limited time and mail theft in shelters is a recurring problem. In May and June 2000, they inquired about three United States Postal Service (the "Postal Service") services: postal box rental, no-fee postal boxes, and general delivery. Under then-existing postal regulations, a person lacking a physical address who sought to rent a postal box had to provide a driver's license or a verifiable point of contact (such as a homeless shelter), or, alternatively, had to be known personally by the postmaster or box clerk. See Postal Bulletin 21877 at 7 (Sept. 29, 1994).
1No-fee postal boxes are available to customers who are ineligible for carrier delivery service. See Domestic Mail Manual D910.5.1(a) (Issue 55, Jan. 10, 2000).2 For example, the Postal Service need not provide carrier services if an area has a low population density or a customer lives within a quarter-mile of a rural post office. No-fee boxes are unavailable in large cities such as Seattle because the Postal Service delivers mail to all physical addresses in the area.
General delivery service permits a person to receive mail addressed merely to his or her name, with the designation "General Delivery, [City Name]." In large cities with multiple branches, all general delivery mail is sent to one designated facility — in Seattle, the Main Post Office downtown. See id. M930.1.2 (Issue 57, June 30, 2002). The mail is held for pickup at a designated post office for thirty days. General delivery service is intended primarily to serve as a temporary means of delivery, although homeless persons may use the service indefinitely. See id. D930.1.1 (Issue 57, June 30, 2002);
These homeless persons experienced various difficulties when they attempted to take advantage of these services. The Postal Service denied Bar and Currier's request for postal box rental because they lacked physical addresses. Even after Currier submitted an identification card issued by a homeless shelter, he was still not permitted to rent a box. Johnson was allowed to rent a box after providing his driver's license. They were all told that they were ineligible for no-fee postal boxes and that they could receive general delivery service only at the Main Post Office.
Aided by a homeless-advocacy group, Seattle Housing and Resource Effort ("SHARE"), Currier, Bar, and a third homeless person, James Kerns (not a party to this appeal), filed petitions with the Postal Service challenging the denial of these services. An Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") held that under the governing postal regulations they were properly denied no-fee boxes and that the Postal Service was not required to provide general delivery at locations other than the Main Post Office in downtown Seattle. The ALJ also denied Currier's petition for postal box rental because Currier refused to use the address listed on his identification card as a point of contact and the card itself lacked a signature as required by postal regulations. The ALJ's decision became the final administrative decision when Currier failed to appeal it within the Postal Service.
Currier, Bar, and Johnson (hereinafter collectively "Currier") then brought suit against the Postal Service and former and current postal officials in the Western District of Washington.3 Currier alleged violations of certain postal regulations; 4
the Postal Reorganization Act ("PRA"), 39 U.S.C. § 101 et seq.; the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. §§ 702-706; the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause; and the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause (incorporating the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause), and sought monetary damages as well as declaratory and injunctive relief.
The Postal Service moved to dismiss the action for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim. Currier in turn filed motions for a preliminary injunction and class certification. The district court granted the Service's motion to dismiss and denied Currier's motions as moot. Currier timely appealed.
We first examine some complex jurisdictional issues, including whether sovereign immunity has been waived by the government and to what extent judicial review of administrative action may be available at all.
The district court held that "there is no waiver of immunity, no substantive legal basis and no jurisdiction over claims asserted under Postal Service regulations." Currier v. Henderson, 190 F.Supp.2d 1221, 1227 (W.D.Wash.2002). The court also dismissed the claims brought under the APA, explaining that the PRA exempted the Postal Service from APA review. Id. at 1228.
Currier contends that the district court erred in concluding that the Postal Service was entitled to sovereign immunity and that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the Service's alleged violation of the no-fee box regulation. The Postal Service responds by arguing that Currier possesses no private right of action to challenge postal regulations, as required by the Supreme Court's recent decision in United States Postal Service v. Flamingo Industries (USA) Ltd., 540 U.S. 736, 124 S.Ct. 1321, 158 L.Ed.2d 19 (2004).5
The Supreme Court reminded us in Flamingo that the two-step analysis first set out in FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S. 471, 114 S.Ct. 996, 127 L.Ed.2d 308 (1994), governs inquiries into the Postal Service's amenability to suit. See Flamingo, 540 U.S. at ___, 124 S.Ct. at 1327. In Meyer, the Court explained that
The first inquiry is whether there has been a waiver of sovereign immunity. If there has been such a waiver ... the second inquiry comes into play — that is, whether the source of substantive law upon which the claimant relies provides an avenue for relief.
Meyer, 510 U.S. at 484, 114 S.Ct. 996. Here, the parties do not dispute that 39 U.S.C. § 401(1) 6 enacts a broad waiver of sovereign immunity for the Postal Service. We must therefore decide whether Currier has a private right of action to obtain relief.
Currier urges various sources of substantive law. First, he contends that the no-fee box regulation itself comprises "the substantive law ... intended to reach the federal entity," in the formulation of the Flamingo Court. Flamingo, 540 U.S. at ___, 124 S.Ct. at 1327. Because the PRA and its implementing regulations are by definition directed at the Postal Service, he explains, Congress did not intend to exempt the Service from judicial review under them. Second, Currier argues that 39 U.S.C. § 409(a) — which declares that "district courts shall have original but not exclusive jurisdiction over all actions brought by or against the Postal Service" — confers a cause of action for violations of postal regulations. And finally, citing People's Gas, Light & Coke Co. v. United States Postal Service, 658 F.2d 1182 (7th Cir.1981), he asserts that, even though the PRA broadly proscribes APA review of the Service's actions, the statute nevertheless permits "APA-like" judicial review of regulatory claims.
We are not persuaded that Congress, by enacting the PRA, intended to subject the Postal Service to suit for violations of regulations. "[A]dopted to increase the efficiency of the Postal Service and reduce political influences on its operations," see Flamingo, 540 U.S. at ___, 124 S.Ct. at 1325, the PRA converted the Postal Department into a rara avis "an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States." 39 U.S.C. § 201. While preserving the Service's public obligations, the Act "indicated that [Congress] wished the Postal Service to be run more like a business than had its predecessor, the Postal Department." Franchise Tax Bd. v. United States Postal Serv., 467 U.S. 512, 519-20, ...
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