Name: Byron York's Daily Memo: Activist judge takes over United States Postal Service
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Byron York's Daily Memo: Activist judge takes over United States Postal Service

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Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to receive the newsletter.ACTIVIST JUDGE TAKES OVER UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE. Remember the Post Office scandal? Before the Bob Woodward book, before the Atlantic magazine article, it was what Democrats had their hair on fire about: A completely unfounded theory that the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, was crippling the Post Office so that Democratic mail-in votes would not be counted in November's election, thus assuring the re-election of President Trump.It was a crazy idea from the get-go. Why? Because there is no doubt the Postal Service can handle voting by mail. According to its annual report, it delivered 142.5 billion pieces of mail in fiscal 2019. That is 471 million pieces of mail delivered per day, to nearly 160 million delivery points. That makes it more than capable of handling any surge in mail. This year alone, it delivered census forms and stimulus checks, which was about 450 million pieces of mail -- more than twice as many pieces of mail than the election will involve. (Worries about voting by mail -- and they are entirely legitimate -- focus not on the Post Office but on state election boards' lack of preparation for a huge increase in mail-in voting due to the pandemic.)Also, even though the Postal Service loses money -- mostly due to massive amounts of overtime it pays due to inefficient procedures -- it has plenty of money to make it through this year and next. After that, it will need a bailout. Which is why DeJoy instituted some new practices to reduce overtime. He also continued his predecessors' existing plans to get rid of aging and un-needed sorting machines -- as much first-class mail as the Postal Service handles, it is significantly less than it handled years ago in the pre-email era. And he continued the practice of moving blue collection boxes around based on where they are most needed.Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine that will keep you up to date with what's going on in Washington.Nevertheless, some Democrats went nuts over pictures of blue boxes piled up awaiting refurbishment and stories of unused machines taken out of service. Trump was sabotaging the election! Newspapers were filled with stories of the president's "assault" on the Postal Service. In response, DeJoy said the Post Office would stop its modernization measures until after the election.But DeJoy continued his efforts to reduce overtime. Specifically, he has instituted a policy under which mail carriers begin their rounds earlier in the day, so that they finish before incurring overtime. If mail arrives at their office while they are out delivering, it will be delivered the next day.It's an entirely reasonable innovation, but postal unions -- you'll be stunned to learn they have endorsed Joe Biden for president -- opposed it. So did Democratic politicians. So it was no surprise when a group of Democratic state attorneys general sued the Postal Service, claiming that it was somehow illegal for the Postmaster General to try to improve Post Office performance.Now, a single federal district judge in Yakima, Washington has to halt all its improvement measures. U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian, of the Eastern District of Washington State, ordered the Postal Service to immediately stop all new carrier schedules, stop implementing new trucking routines, and stop any new changes designed to reduce overtime. Just look at the relevant portion of Bastian's order:With the ruling, Bastian has effectively appointed himself Postmaster General of the United States. It's a perfect example of the judicial overreach that has plagued our politics in recent years. Partisan, too, with an Obama-appointed judge agreeing with a lawsuit from Democratic officials that was basically a collection of Democratic talking points.And here's the kicker. Bastian stepped in just as Postmaster General DeJoy's efforts were starting to work. From the : "A Senate report published Wednesday said [DeJoy's new policy] delayed 7 percent of the country's first-class mail in the five weeks after it took effect. However, the Postal Service was just starting to adapt to DeJoy's new transportation schedule, with on-time delivery rates rebounding, according to data submitted to lawmakers.”Judge Bastian threw that progress out the window -- and has now injected chaos into the Postal Service even as ballots are beginning to hit the mail. If Bastian's ruling stands, Post Office officials will have to throw out the new system that is beginning to work and return to the old ways. The result will almost certainly be confusion and a decrease in performance, just weeks before the election. That's what can happen when judges believe they can take over something as large and complex as the Postal Service.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to receive the newsletter.ACTIVIST JUDGE TAKES OVER UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE. Remember the Post Office scandal? Before the Bob Woodward book, before the Atlantic magazine article, it was what Democrats had their hair on fire about: A completely unfounded theory that the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, was crippling the Post Office so that Democratic mail-in votes would not be counted in November's election, thus assuring the re-election of President Trump.It was a crazy idea from the get-go. Why? Because there is no doubt the Postal Service...

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Byron York

The Washington Examiner is an American conservative news website and weekly magazine based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is owned by Philip Anschutz. From 2005 to mid-2013, the Examiner published a daily tabloid-sized newspaper, distributed throughout the Washington, D.C., metro area. The newspaper focused on local news and political commentary. The local newspaper ceased publication on June 14, 2013, whereupon its content began to focus almost exclusively on national politics, switching its print edition from a daily newspaper to a weekly magazine format.

Byron York's Daily Memo: Activist judge takes over United States Postal Service

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