The Washington Post has published an op-ed written by the PCJF’s Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Legal Director Carl Messineo challenging the Trump administration’s new and outrageous plan to charge demonstrators fees and costs to protest in the nation’s capital and to close the White House sidewalk to demonstrations.
The Trump administration wants to tax protests. What happened to free speech?
For the first time, the U.S. government wants demonstrators to pay to use our parks, sidewalks and streets to engage in free speech in the nation’s capital. This should be called for what it is: a protest tax.
This is a bold effort by the Trump administration to burden and restrict access to public spaces for First Amendment activities in Washington. If enacted, it would fundamentally alter participatory democracy in America.
Click here to read the full OpEd.