WYOMING — In a letter to the Chief Postal Inspector of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) pushed for a policy reform to require a court order to grant mail surveillance requests.
Currently, requests for sender and recipient information for letters and parcels delivered by the USPS, known as “mail covers,” only require agencies to submit the request in writing; no court order is required, because postal surveillance operates according to USPIS’ own rules with no judicial supervision.
According to the letter, this type of unsupervised surveillance can enable abuse of particular people who reside in all states, including Wyoming.
“While mail covers do not reveal the contents of correspondence, they can reveal deeply personal information about Americans’ political leanings, religious beliefs or causes they support,” the letter states. “Consequently, surveillance of this information does not just threaten Americans’ privacy, but their First Amendment rights to freely associate with political or religious organizations or peacefully assemble without the government watching.”
The letter also points out the lack of published annual statistics on the mail covers program, calling for more transparency by the USPIS.
Read the full letter here.
