Mail Fraud

Now the executive office can open mail in “extreme circumstances”. A new postal reform bill signed into law on December 20^th by President Bush has now expanded the governments search powers. The bill allows the executive to open mail domestic mail in “exigent circumstances”.

This is dangerous. An exigent circumstance is a situation where there is no time for a law enforcement official to obtain a warrant before damage is done. This is normally referred to as the “ticking time bomb” scenario. For instance, a policeman chasing an armed suspect into a building can enter without a warrant because of the imminent threat of danger.

How the hell could a private letter rise to that level of danger? If Osama Bin Laden was somehow in California and tried to mail a letter to an associate in New York to blow up a building the post office can delay delivery, giving law enforcement plenty of time to receive a warrant.

This was a very quite law that I can only hope is exposed and rescinded.