In June 2000, we filed a lawsuit under the First Amendment challenging a new regulation that prohibited “soliciting signatures on petitions” on any U.S. Postal Service property, including outdoor sidewalks and parking lots. In 2003, the federal district court in D.C. upheld the regulation, as newly interpreted by the Postal Service to prohibit only the actual signing of petitions. We appealed, and in 2005 the court of appeals reversed, holding that Post Office sidewalks adjoining public streets (perimeter sidewalks) are public forums and that the regulation was not a valid restriction on such sidewalks. The court also held that if such perimeter sidewalks were a significant portion of all USPS sidewalks (which we think they are), then the whole regulation would be unconstitutional on its face; the court did not rule on whether sidewalks that only lead from the parking area to the front door of a post office are also public forums.
In response, the Postal Service amended the regulation to permit the collection of signatures on perimeter sidewalks and then argued that the regulation, as limited to non-perimeter sidewalks, was constitutional. The district court upheld the revised regulation, and we again appealed. In July 2012 the court of appeals upheld the new regulation, ruling that Post Office sidewalks that are not adjacent to a public street are not “traditional public forums.”
We have been litigating our motion for an award of attorneys' fees since May 2013 and, as of March 2017, reached agreement with the Postal Service to settle our claim.
