An independent filmmaker calls fees charged by the National Park Service on commercial filming “unconstitutional” in a lawsuit filed this week.
Earlier this week, Gordon M. Price, of Yorktown, Va., filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, and David Vela, acting director of the NPS, saying the permit requirement is “facially unconstitutional” because it singles out a certain type of filming on public lands.
Last month, a federal judge dismissed a criminal citation against Mr. Price for failure to secure a permit before filming at Yorktown Battlefield in the Colonial National Historic Park in a film released last year.
Mr. Price’s film was about a stretch of road in York County rumored to be haunted by unsolved murders criminal. He ventured onto locations within the Yorktown Battlefield for the project. After the film premiered, two National Park Service agents issued Mr. Price a citation for violating a federal statute requiring a permit for commercial filming. He says future projects that could involve filming and photography in federal parks are being hampered by the burdensome permit.
• Christopher Vondracek can be reached at cvondracek@washingtontimes.com.
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