--- From: Majstoll@private Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 23:11:14 EST Subject: US Post Office Publishes Draft Regulation to Require ID to Send Mail To: declan@private Declan, For Posting: In apparent disregard for US traditions and the Constitutional protections of anonymous free speech as upheld in The Tattered Cover Bookstore v. The City of Thornton, Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation, McIntyre v. Ohio, Talley v. California, and Buckley v. Valeo, the US Post Office is moving forward with a "first step" regulation to eventually require the identification and tracking of senders of all mail. Public comments are being accepted through 20 NOV 2003. I'm sure glad that those Federalist Papers already got mailed out before this regulation takes effect, whew! -Mike Stollenwerk ------------- <http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/10/26/postal.addresses>http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/10/26/postal.addresses "Post office proposes requiring ID on mail: Regulation offered in response to anthrax scare, CNN.com, 26 October 2003 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Postal Service is taking a first step toward requiring all senders of mail to identify themselves, a move prompted by the anthrax scare two years ago this month. Five people died of anthrax infection and 13 others became sick when an unknown person or persons sent several U.S. senators and media organizations envelopes containing the deadly toxin. As a first step, the Postal Service has proposed a regulation that would require sender identification of discount-rate mail. That includes first-class mail, periodicals, standard mail or package-services mailing eligible for any discounted postage rate. Printed in the Federal Register on October 21, the revision of the Domestic Mail Manual is open for public comment until November 20. "Sender identification of all discount mailings would serve as a tool in identifying the senders of a large portion of the mailstream. It could also facilitate investigations into the origin of suspicious mail," the proposal said. The Postal Service said two congressional committees urged it to "explore the concept of sender identification, including the feasibility of using unique, traceable identifiers" -- something likely to draw criticism from privacy advocates. The President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service also recommended the use of sender identification recently "for every piece of mail." ... _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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