Three individuals sued the Nationwide Park Service earlier this month, saying the company denied them entry to a nationwide park as a result of they tried to pay the doorway charge with money.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court docket within the District of Columbia, challenges the Park Service’s not too long ago carried out cashless entrance charge system at 29 areas. They argue refusing to simply accept authorized U.S. forex violates federal regulation and discriminates in opposition to these with out financial institution accounts.
The Park Service carried out the coverage final 12 months to scale back the amount of money and checks dealt with by the federal authorities. Whereas cashless funds are arguably faster and simpler than money funds, officers say they’re additionally simpler to handle logistically as a result of they don’t have to move money to a different location.
The three plaintiffs within the case — Esther van der Werf, of Ventura County, California; Toby Stover, of Ulster County, New York; and Elizabeth Dasburg, of McIntosh County, Georgia — all say they have been denied entrance to a park for attempting to pay entrance charges with money.
In two situations, van der Werf and Dasburg say they emailed the Park Service about paying an entrance charge with money, to which the company instructed them “entrance charges is probably not paid by money or verify.” In Dasburg’s case, the company even suggested her to purchase a pre-paid card from a retailer so she might use it to pay the doorway charge.
