The Forest Service oversees 193 million acres of wilderness. In a month, you won’t be able to take a picture in them without getting a fine — even if the new rules are unconstitutional.
Eric Vilas-Boas
Esquire
9/24/2014
Nice photo. That’ll be $1,000, please.
This week’s most profoundly wrongheaded display of nonviolent press infringement comes from an unlikely source: The U.S. Forest Service. New rules being finalized in November state that—across this country’s gloriously beautiful, endlessly photogenic, 193 million acres of designated wilderness area administered by the USFS—members of the press who happen upon it will need permits to photograph or shoot video.
And yes, it does sound like one of the dumbest things you’ve ever read.
“It’s pretty clearly unconstitutional,” said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Alexandria, Va. “They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just can’t.”
Wait! It gets better…
The article continues at Esquire.
