Susan Fletcher Case

USPS Reg Chills Religious Freedom

Susan Fletcher is a graphic designer motivated to express her faith in everything she does. In particular, she feels called by God to use the artistic talents he has given her to communicate her faith to others. This includes designing stamps to celebrate religious holidays and to share her religious viewpoint with her friends and family members.

When she learned that United States Postal Service (“USPS”) vendors offer to personalize postage stamps, she was excited to employ her design skills to communicate the most personal thing to her: her faith. The USPS operates a customized postage program that allows third party vendors to print designs created by ordinary citizens.

While preparing to submit her personalized stamp design, Susan discovered that a USPS regulation prevents her from ordering personalized stamps with religious content. The regulation categorically prohibits images or text containing any depiction of religious content, despite allowing secular depictions of the same topics. Ironically, the USPS itself issues several religiously-themed stamps each year, even though it refuses to allow individuals to personalize religious stamps of their own.

Among the designs Fletcher hoped to create were:

• A Christmas nativity scene recalling the birth of Christ, “Emmanuel, God with us.”
• The phrase “God Bless Texas” to celebrate Texas Independence Day and reflecting her personal prayer for her home state.
• A depiction of the empty cross of Christ with the phrase “I am with you always” to celebrate Easter, the most central of Christian holidays.
• And, a stamp about missionary work—a Christian duty, according to Susan—featuring the words of Christ from Matthew 28, “Go therefore and make disciples.”

Susan said, “I just want to express my faith in everything I do, at Christmas and all throughout the year. I am truly saddened that the country I love would keep me from expressing the most important message I could share with others: my faith.”

Incredibly, the USPS lumps religious content into a category described as “unsuitable for all-ages and audiences.” Other categories excluded by the USPS include content that is violent or filled with sexually explicit images.

Not only that, one of the private third parties facilitating customized stamp creation has stiff penalties for those customers who publicly complain about the rejection of a stamp design. Stamps.com, for instance, claims it will be harmed by customers who complain in public about the regulation—and may even pursue legal action against those who do!

First Liberty Files Lawsuit

In order to protect its client from a possible lawsuit or, worse, crippling financial penalties, First Liberty Institute, along with its network attorneys at the international law firm of Winston & Strawn, LLP, filed a federal lawsuit against the USPS to prevent it from continuing to enforce the regulation.

The lawsuit argues that the U.S. Supreme Court has held such categorical exclusion of religious content as viewpoint discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee. Not only that, the lawsuit also argues the regulation substantially burdens the free exercise of Susan’s religion.

USPS Ends Program

In June 2020, the Postal Service decided to end the program of specialized stamps entirely, despite it being a revenue source.

Jeremy Dys, Special Counsel for Litigation and Communication at First Liberty said, “It is puzzling that the U.S. Postal Service would end a revenue-generating program because someone might choose a religious image on a stamp and then demand that Congress reward that decision with a taxpayer bailout.  Rather than celebrate the principles of free, diverse speech, the U.S. Postal Service has decided to silence all speech but their own.  Americans now have fewer options and the USPS will lose more money because of this decision.”