Will a lawsuit against national parks’ cashless policies be thrown out in court?

From 2023, entrance fees to national parks can only be paid by credit or bank card. The goal is to speed up traffic flow and reduce staff time at the park entrance.

Some parks, including Great Falls in Virginia and Saguaro National Park in Arizona, are now completely cashless, meaning you can’t use cash in stores or anywhere else in the parks.

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US Law: Coins and currency are legal tender for all debts

Cashless policies have not been universally popular. In March 2024, three park visitors from across the country filed a lawsuit against the NPS in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Filed by Toby Stover and Elizabeth Dasburg of Georgia. […] Is the legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues.

“As such, NPS’s refusal to accept payment of admission fees in U.S. dollars is therefore a clear violation of federal law,” the lawsuit further reads.

While the plaintiffs sought to claim that the cashless policy discriminated against people who did not have bank cards, lawyers representing government departments including the NPS responded by asking that the lawsuit be dismissed because they “did not argue that they personally did not have bank cards”. way to pay the admission fee.

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Legal right to pay in cash

“Their alleged harm – and indeed, their lack of access to certain national parks on the few occasions noted in the complaint – is based solely on a principled belief that they have a ‘legal right’ to pay cash,” said National Parks, the national park watchdog. Traveler recently reported.

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The response was filed in July, and as of mid-December, the case was still pending because it had not yet been presented to a judge, who would rule on whether the charges should be thrown out of court or proceed with litigation.

At the same time, lawyers representing the government spent a large part of their response thinking about the meaning of the word “debt,” arguing that access to the park is not a service, but a service that tourists are willing to choose to pay for.

“There is no indication in the legislative history or anywhere else that this statute may apply to anything other than the discharge of a debt, regardless of how the debt is defined,” the response further reads. “Paid entry into a national park under any definition of that term A fee is not a debt; rather, it is a payment for goods or services.”

Some states, including New York, have passed laws prohibiting businesses from accepting only cash to protect poor and undocumented populations who may not have bank accounts. However, no site in the state is fully designated a national park.

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