WASHINGTON, D.C.: The United States Postal Service cannot be sued even when employees deliberately refuse to deliver mail, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices ruled against Texas landlord Lebene Konan, who had sued the USPS for allegedly intentionally withholding her mail for two years. Konan, who is Black, claimed racial prejudice played a role in postal employees' actions.

Clarence Thomas, writing for five conservative Supreme Court justices, said that federal law protects the U.S. Postal Service from being sued over missing or undelivered mail — and that this protection also covers cases where mail is intentionally not delivered.

In disagreement, Sonia Sotomayor said the protection is broad but should not apply if the mail was not delivered for harmful or malicious reasons. Neil Gorsuch joined the court's three liberal justices in disagreeing with the majority.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration had argued that if the court ruled in favor of Konan, it could open the door to many similar lawsuits against the financially struggling Postal Service.

Konan, who works as a real estate and insurance agent, said that two workers at a post office in Euless, near Dallas-Fort Worth, purposely stopped delivering mail to her and her tenants. She claimed they did this because they disliked her as she was Black and owned several properties.

Court records said the problem began when Konan learned that the mailbox key for one of her rental properties had been changed without her knowledge. This stopped her from collecting and delivering tenants' mail. When she contacted the post office, officials said she would not get a new key or regular mail delivery until she proved she owned the property. She later provided proof, but the delivery problems continued, even after a USPS inspector general told the office to deliver the mail.

Konan said some mail was marked as undeliverable or returned to the sender. Because of this, she and her tenants missed important items, such as bills, medicine, and car titles. She also said she lost rental income because some tenants moved out due to the ongoing problems.

After filing many complaints with postal officials, Konan sued the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a law that allows certain lawsuits against the federal government. The case focused on how far the Postal Service's special legal protection goes under that law.