On October 15, U.S. District Court Judge Garland Burrell ruled that the U.S. Postal Service must tell the California state campaign finance enforcement agency how many pieces of mail a particular candidate mailed. The California agency, the Fair Political Practices Commission, believed that William Eisen broke some California campaign finance laws when he mailed 200 pieces of mail to voters. But the Fair Political Practices Commission needed proof of the number of pieces mailed, and asked the U.S. Postal Service to reveal that information. The Postal Service refused, so the California agency then sued the postal service and won the case. Fair Political Practices Commission v U.S. Postal Service, 2:12-cv-93.

The Postal Service had argued that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply in this instance because the act has an exemption for information concerning commerce. The Postal Service also argued that if it had to disclose such information, future candidates would shun using the postal mail and instead use private delivery services. If the candidate had used a private delivery service, the Freedom of Information Act would not have applied. But the decision says that there are no private delivery services for mailings of this type.