Constitutional Law

National parks can't require permits for 'expressive activities'

By By The Associated Press

National Park Service rules requiring a Minnesota man to get a permit before distributing religious materials at Mount Rushmore National Memorial are unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said in a decision released late last week.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said Aug. 6 that the government can?t require permits for ?expressive activities within designated ?free speech areas? ? or other public forums at the 391 national parks.

?Within ?free speech areas,? the government has exceedingly little basis for hushing ?lone pamphleteer[s]? ... in the name of peace and tranquility,? a three-judge panel of the court said in Boardley v. Department of Interior.

Michael Boardley, of Coon Rapids, Minn., sued the U.S. Interior Department, National Park Service and five federal officials in November 2007 after he was told he would need a permit to distribute ?gospel tracts? at the presidential monument in western South Dakota?s Black Hills. He said he later applied for a permit but did not get one until after he filed the lawsuit.

The appeals court said Boardley?s free-speech rights were violated, overturning a lower court ruling.

Messages left for National Park Service spokesmen in Washington and at Mount Rushmore were not returned in time for this story.

Nate Kellum of the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing Boardley, said: ?The First Amendment is the only permit a Christian or any American needs to engage in free speech on public property. ... Certainly, it made no sense to enforce unconstitutional regulations that deny free speech at the foot of Mount Rushmore — a place where four men who championed America?s freedoms are immortalized in stone.?

Boardley handed out religious material near the entrance to Mount Rushmore on Aug. 9, 2007, but when he returned to the same spot the next day, a park ranger told him he could not distribute printed material without a permit, according to court records. Boardley then returned home and called Mount Rushmore to request a permit for another trip, but he said he did not receive a permit or even an application.

Boardley then filed a lawsuit challenging two National Park Service regulations dealing with permits for assemblies, demonstrations, parades and the distribution of printed materials at all national parks. The lawsuit alleged the regulations are unconstitutional because they violate the First Amendment?s protection of free speech and freedom of religion and the Fifth Amendment?s guarantee of equal protection.

A U.S. district judge ruled in March 2009 in favor of the federal agencies and officials, saying Mount Rushmore did not violate Boardley?s constitutional rights. Boardley appealed.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on August 08, 2010 (boomark / email).