Appar­ently our domes­tic mail has been opened with­out ben­e­fit of war­rants need­ing only the approval of the US Postal Inspec­tion Ser­vice Direc­tor. Each day our free­doms erode fur­ther and fur­ther and we can thank the extended use of sign­ing state­ments for some of it.

There’s rea­son to believe more mail may be being opened, as well.

In late 2006, a sign­ing state­ment issued by Pres­i­dent Bush sug­gested that his office had expanded exec­u­tive branch power to open mail with­out a warrant.

The sign­ing state­ment accom­pa­nied H.R. 6407, the Postal Account­abil­ity and Enhance­ment Act of 2006, which reit­er­ated a pro­hi­bi­tion on open­ing first class mail with­out a warrant.

“In 1996, the postal reg­u­la­tions were altered to per­mit the open­ing of First Class mail with­out a war­rant in nar­rowly defined cases where the Postal Inspec­tor believes there is a cred­i­ble threat that the pack­age con­tains dan­ger­ous mate­r­ial like bombs,” the ACLU said in a press release at the time. “Instead of ref­er­enc­ing the nar­row excep­tion in the postal reg­u­la­tions, the president’s sign­ing state­ment sug­gests that he is assum­ing broader author­ity to open mail with­out a warrant.”