First Class Mail Immune To Search?

[Thepurplem0nkey]

I was searching around for prices of first class mail, and stumbled upon this little tidbit on the postal services web sight:

2.2.1 Inspection of Contents

First-Class Mail is closed against postal inspection. Federal law and USPS regulations restrict both opening and reviewing the contents of First-Class Mail by anyone other than the addressee.
Source: http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/133.htm

I thought that was some nifty bit of information. Aparantly, if you are going to be mailing sensitive items in the mail, first class is the way to go. Anyway, use that information however it best suits you :-)
-PM

[Torco]

that does not stop some of them from opening your mail, such as if your in jail or prison, they always open your mail. and us customs do it to.

[cybregrrl]

PM -

You are correct. Mail sent first class within the US requires a search warrant in order to be opened.

[SlimDog53185]

Thats a nice little fact to know. I wouldn't have expected that. Now people don't have to be paranoid when ordering pipes and accessories within the US.

[IshmarRodriguez]

Sounds cool, but I have a question. Isn't first class sent by plane?

I am pretty sure that a lot of plane bound packages get sniffed for bombs, and the dogs probably can smell other stuff. I am extremely paranoid of all mail systems. If that package crosses state lines, it's a federal crime. Ack!

[ShadyLady]

Opening other people's mail is that not illegal unless a court gives permission for it to take place? Here it is illegal for anyone to open mail unless it is addressed to them personally and carries at least 6 month's jail sentence if done and the post office always finds out about it and responds every time by court proceedures, unless a court has ordered the action to take place by the appropriate agency (the police or the tax man). This seldom happens as the court usually deems 'NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE FOR THEM TO PROCEED'
Obviously prison staff have an except in as they have the powers of a court on such matters and all prison's open, read and search incomming and outgoing mail because of security issues and have the powers to edit, confiscate or return to sender.
So all first class mail requires a warrant! does it all get searched or is that a process where random mail is picked ?
I ask because we here have many different types of mail (too many by far to begin listing them all) our first class means that the mail is given priority over certain other types of mail and cannot be held for processing for more than 24 hours, yet our second class mail can be held for processing for upto five working days!

[IshmarRodriguez]

I was a major in criminal justice in college. I went through a period in my life where I actually wanted to be a copy (I know, wtf was I thinking!!!).

If I remember correctly. My prof was telling me of a guy we was defending in court on marijuana related charges. A package was shipped to him (not sure if it was first class or not). In transit a dog smelt weed. My prof. said that all the courts had to do for a search warrent was send a fax to a 24/7 judge, he said the judge normally signs off on it instantly. The police found weed and delivered to the guy, once he accepted the package (didn't sign) he got arrested.

They ended up losing the court case. I don't know anymore minor details, I took that class a very long time ago.

EDIT: I forgot, moral of the story is BE CAREFUL with mail!!

DOUBLE EDIT: I forgot again. The story was actually funny because the professor originally said the guy received 5 grams of weed to gain sympathy from the class. Then at the end of the story he said, oh by the way it wasn't 5 grams it was a pound. Everyone was defending the guy, then suddenly everyones outlook changed.

[cybregrrl]

lol ishmar, that's funny.

It is my understanding that if you ship by any other method (ie: Fedex, UPS, DHL) there is a clause in the paperwork you sign that effectively gives the company the authority to open ANY package. Never, ever send anything questionable via those methods.

Yes, there is a chance that a drug-sniffing dog might catch a whiff. However, there are only so many trained drug dogs in the US.

There are ways to mail questionable materials, but to mail a pound of weed - that's just dumb.

[One Three]

Do you know how over worked US post offices are? Trust me, every package is not sniffed.

The person who had his package sniffed did NOT ship first class, Ishmar. Your professer kind of got his facts messed up. All first class mail OVER 13 ounces becomes "priority mail" which is not subject to the same privacy and it usually more likely to be sniffed because of the weight.

If he were to have shipped 5 grams in a business envelope (the yellow kind with the thin layer of bubble wrap on each side) he would of been fine.

[Thepurplem0nkey]

I wasnt thinking about using this knowledge to send things to people in jail. It just seems to me that with such trouble required to open 1st class mail, someone who took just a LITTLE time to disguise certain items would have a BETTER chance fo those items reaching their destination than any other class of mail (from what I can gather).
-PM

[cybregrrl]

One Three - that is completely correct. In this case, as in some other instances, size does matter.

PM - If someone is smart and careful, yes some items would reach their destination better with 1st class mail.

[tinkerbell420]

i have received small amounts several times disguised in various ways. the person sending the package always scribbles an illegiable return address that way if it was found out i can always say i don't know who sent it.