Court bars speech permits in park
Ruling could have impact across the U.S.
WASHINGTON – Religious missionaries and political activists will have more freedom to speak out in Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains and other national parks under an important appellate court ruling.
In an expansive First Amendment decision, a key appellate court struck down a long-standing National Park Service requirement that activists obtain permits before they demonstrate, distribute brochures or engage in other “expressive” activities in parks.
“These regulations penalize a substantial amount of speech that does not impinge on the government’s interests,” wrote Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The court’s decision specifically involved Mount Rushmore National Park in South Dakota, where Michael Boardley and others were initially blocked in 2007 from distributing material praising Jesus Christ and the Gospel.
Boardley succeeded, though, in convincing the three-judge appellate panel that the National Park Service’s speech permit requirement violated First Amendment free-speech guarantees.
Consequently, the decision, quietly released Friday, opens doors wider at all 391 units of the national park system.
National parks typically confine religious and political activities to designated “free-speech areas.” The court ruling doesn’t eliminate these.