Three folks 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 payment with money.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal courtroom within the District of Columbia, challenges the Park Service’s lately carried out cashless entrance payment system at 29 places. They argue refusing to just accept authorized U.S. forex violates federal legislation and discriminates in opposition to these with out financial institution accounts.
The Park Service carried out the coverage final yr 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 making an attempt to pay entrance charges with money.
In two cases, van der Werf and Dasburg say they emailed the Park Service about paying an entrance payment with money, to which the company informed them “entrance charges might not be 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 payment.
