Changes made by Postmaster General DeJoy before 2020 election harmed US Postal Service, judge rules

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice

    (CNN) -- A federal judge in Washington, DC, ruled Thursday that changes Postmaster General Louis DeJoy made to the US Postal Service before the 2020 election hurt mail delivery, and has put in place orders to prevent DeJoy from doing the same again.

Judge Emmet Sullivan said the USPS couldn't bar postal workers from making late or extra delivery trips without permission from the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent federal agency.

"Although the simultaneous implementation of multiple policy changes in June and July 2020 contributed to the decline in mail service and the overall confusion by postal workers, the record evidence demonstrates that changes to and impacts on the USPS transportation schedule regarding late and extra trips were the primary factor in affecting service on a nationwide or substantially nationwide basis," Sullivan wrote in a 65-page opinion Thursday.

The lawsuit was one of three filed in summer 2020 against the USPS objecting to operational changes to the Postal Service that has disrupted mail delivery across the country just months before the general election, which saw a record number of mail-in ballots cast.

Sullivan, however, declined to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the USPS' internal operations complying with the court's orders.

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