Postal Service v. Konan · ¶24

The postal exception retains the Federal Government’s sovereign immunity for “[a]ny claim arising out of the loss, miscarriage, or negligent transmission of letters or postal matter.”28 U. S. C. §2680(b).The postal exception re- flects Congress’s judgment that redress for “harms” of “the sort primarily identified with the Postal Service’s function of transporting mail throughout the United States” should not come from tort suits.Dolan, 546 U. S., at 489.Given the frequency of postal workers’ interactions with citizens, those suits would arise so often that they would create a significant burden for the Government and the courts.And their cost to taxpayers would depend on the value and impor- tance of the mail’s contents, over which the Government typ- ically has no control.See, e. g., Marine Ins. Co., 378 F. 2d, at 813 (theft from mail of six emeralds valued at $152,190 in 1967 dollars).

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