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| Above, an eruption of Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
For years, I've seen notices on national parks literature stating that permits are needed for commercial filming and that fees have to paid.
Not anymore! A federal judge ruled that permits and fees for commercial filming in national parks violate the First Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional.
DIYPhotography reported:
Filmmakers, rejoice: thanks to a court case from 2019, you may no longer need to get a permit and pay fees for commercial shoots in national parks. D.C. federal judge has just made the decision, ruling that it’s unconstitutional for the National Park Service to require a permit and charge you with fees.
It all started in late 2018 when director Gordon Price was shooting his feature film Crawford Road. He was filming in Yorktown Battlefield in Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia without a permit, so two NPS officers issued him a citation, Hollywood Reporter writes. The same source reports that Price argued that the citation was amounted to “content-based prior restraints.”
In December 2019, Price sued the U.S. Attorney General (then William Barr), Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, and Deputy Director of the National Park Service David Vela. As you probably know, you don’t pay a fee or need a permit for shooting in areas where the public is generally allowed. But in other locations, or if you use models or props, the situation changes. Also, news-gathering generally doesn’t require a permit. In his lawsuit, Price argued that the statute was “facially unconstitutional because it targets First Amendment activity.”
To read more, go here.
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