UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ) EAGLE TRUST FUND, et al., ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) No. 1:17-cv-2450 (KBJ) ) UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, ) et al. ) ) Defendants. ) ) MEMORANDUM OPINION Over the course of fifty years, conservative political activist Phyllis M. Schlafly created numerous “educational, advocacy, and policy groups,” each of which she branded with an “Eagle”-themed name. (Am. Compl., ECF No. 20, ¶¶ 30, 31.) Among those entities are plaintiffs Eagle Trust Fund (“ETF”) and Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund (“EFE-LDF”), as well as non-party Eagle Forum. (See id. ¶¶ 2–3, 6, 31.) Each of Schlafly’s “Eagle” organizations traditionally received its mail through one central post-office box in Alton, Illinois; significantly, much of this mail was addressed to some variation of “Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum,” without regard to the particular “Eagle” entity the correspondence actually concerned. (See Postal Service Initial Decision (“Initial Dec.”), Ex. A to Defs.’ Mot. to Dismiss, ECF No. 17-1, at 4.) 1 This centralized landing spot for the various entities’ correspondence changed in 2016, when the organization known as Eagle Forum veered from the flock under new 1 Page-number citations to the documents that the parties have filed refer to the page numbers that the Court’s electronic filing system automatically assigns. leadership (due to a legal dispute), and submitted a “change of address” form to the United States Postal Service (“USPS”). (Id. at 6.) Plaintiffs ETF and EFE-LDF have now combined with John Schlafly—Phyllis Schlafly’s son, who serves as a trustee or officer of ETF and EFE-LDF—to file the instant lawsuit against USPS. (See Am. Compl. ¶¶ 2–4.) Plaintiffs claim that ETF’s and EFE-LDF’s mail matter is being improperly diverted to Eagle Forum’s new address, and they request reversal of an administrative ruling upholding USPS’s decision to honor Eagle Forum’s change-of- address request. (See id. ¶ 1.) Before this Court at present is USPS’s motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ first amended complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and (6). (See Defs.’ Mot. to Dismiss (“Defs.’ Mot.”), ECF No. 21.) Because Plaintiffs’ complaint does not identify a cause of action and otherwise fails to state a claim for the purpose of Rule 12(b)(6), as explained below, USPS’s motion will be GRANTED, and Plaintiffs’ action will be DISMISSED without prejudice. A separate Order consistent with this Memorandum Opinion will follow. I. BACKGROUND 2 A. Basic Facts Phyllis Schlafly began leasing P.O. Box 618 in Alton, Illinois in 1967, the same year that she created Eagle Trust Fund. (See Initial Dec. at 4.) Most, if not all, of her Eagle-themed organizations received mail at that P.O. Box for almost fifty years, and as 2 The facts recited herein are drawn from the allegations in Plaintiffs’ complaint, as well as from the written decisions in the underlying administrative proceedings, which the complaint incorporates by reference. See R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. USDA, 130 F. ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals