WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday threw out a 5-cent hike to the price of a first class “Forever Stamp” along with other adjustments made in January to the price of first-class mail.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that a postal commission failed to provide an adequate explanation for the increase from 50 to 55 cents and failed to respond to public comments challenging the increase.
A U.S. Postal Service spokesman said the service is reviewing the decision and considering its legal options. Spokesman David Partenheimer confirmed in an email that at this time customers will still be charged the new January rates for first-class mail, including 55 cents for a Forever Stamp.
The lawsuit was filed by Douglas Carlson, a postal customer and watchdog who made one of 34 comments to the commission when the rate hike was proposed. The judges ruling on the case were Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas, appointees of President Donald Trump, and Patricia Millett, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
“Although the five-cent stamp price hike may have gone unnoticed by many, the American Revolution was fomented in part by ordinary people who objected to taxation through stamps,” Rao wrote for the group.
The Postal Service received the latest in a series of financial setbacks Friday when appeals court judges struck down the highest-ever postage price increase that went into effect earlier this year.
The D.C. District Court of Appeals struck down a five-cent rate increase on the price of a first-class postage stamp, which raised the price from 50 to 55 cents in January.
In an opinion written by Judge Naomi Rao, the Trump administration’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a three-judge panel ruled that the Postal Regulatory Commission, which approved the rate increase last year, “failed to provide an adequate explanation of the increase” and “failed to respond to public comments challenging the increase.”
“Congress directed the commission to serve as more than just a rubber stamp of the Postal Service’s proposed rate increases … By failing to consider relevant statutory objectives and factors and declining to respond to significant public comments, the commission violated the [Administrative Procedure Act] when it approved the stamp price hike,” Rao wrote.
PRC Approves USPS Request for Postage Rate Hike effective January 21 2018