Cite as: 540 U. S. 736 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
trict Court dismissed the antitrust claims, concluding that the Postal Service is not subject to liability under federal antitrust law. The Court of Appeals reversed. It held that the Postal Service can be liable but that it has a limited immunity from antitrust liability for conduct undertaken at the command of Congress. 302 F. 3d 985, 993 (CA9 2002). We granted certiorari to consider the question whether the United States Postal Service is a "person" amenable to suit under the controlling antitrust statute. 538 U. S. 1056 (2003). We hold it is not subject to antitrust liability, and we reverse.
After the Revolution, both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution explicitly empowered the National Government to provide and regulate postal services. Article of Confederation IX; U. S. Const., Art. I, § 8. The importance of the enterprise was prefigured by the Continental Congress' appointment of Benjamin Franklin to be the first Postmaster General, on July 26, 1775. G. Cullinan, The United States Postal Service 26 (1973) (hereinafter Cullinan). From those beginnings, the Postal Service has become "the nation's oldest and largest public business." J. Tierney, Postal Reorganization: Managing the Public's Business vii (1981) (hereinafter Tierney).
During its history since Postmaster Franklin, the postal organization has been reorganized or restructured at various times. In the immediate period after ratification of the Constitution, it was called the General Post Office and was subordinate to the Treasury Department. Cullinan 35-36. In 1825, its name changed from the General Post Office to the Post Office Department, an alteration accomplished by somewhat informal means when Postmaster Joseph McLean simply changed the title on official letterhead. McLean also began the practice of reporting directly to the President rather than to the Secretary of the Treasury. Id., at 50-51. (McLean was a popular Postmaster who served from 1823 until 1829, when the incoming President Andrew Jackson
739
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007