The Americans − from California, New York and Georgia − filed the lawsuit earlier this month in federal court in Washington, D.C., saying that the park service is violating federal law by not allowing guests to pay cash to enter various parks, monuments and historic sites.
The lawsuit says the park service’s police violates a U.S. law that says that “coins and currency … are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues.”
“Thus, NPS’ refusal to accept U.S. Currency tendered for entrance fees constitutes a clear violation of federal law,” says the lawsuit, obtained by USA TODAY on Wednesday.
Here’s what you need to know.
Plaintiffs denied entry at NPS locations in New York, Georgia, Arizona
The Americans who filed the lawsuit are Esther van der Werf of Ojai, California, Toby Stover of High Falls, New York, and Elizabeth Dasburg of Darien, Georgia.
They say that 29 places throughout the country don’t accept cash as payment to enter, including Saguaro National Park, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Tonto National Monument − all in Arizona − the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site in New York and the Fort Pulaski National Historic Site in Georgia.
When Dasburg emailed Fort Pulaski asking how she can visit the park without a credit or debit card, she was told in writing that she could take her cash to a grocery store or Walmart and purchase a gift card, which could be accepted instead of cash, according to the lawsuit.
Stover and Van der Werf also had similar experiences, with NPS denying their entries over failure to pay digitally.
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Why did NPS go cashless?
In May 2023, the National Park Service announced that it was going cashless and that dozens of the 424 sites within the National Park System will no longer accept cash for entry.
Justin Unger, National Park Service associate director for Business Services, told USA TODAY at the time that in recent years the U.S. Treasury created policies to reduce the amount of cash and checks handled across the federal government and many banks stopped partnering with the Treasury in that process.
“The number of formal banks with relationships with the Treasury Department, where we could actually take cash, has really dried up especially in more rural or remote areas,” he said.
That combined with the closure of many brick and mortar banks force park staff to take that cash even farther to deposit, costing both time and money. Death Valley spent roughly $40,000 a year on processing and transporting cash, according to the park.
Unger added that visitor behavior also played a significant role in the move to cashless. “The amount of cash that we are actually being offered has significantly declined by tens of millions of dollars,” he said.
Cashless transactions can also be processed quicker now that national parks have streamlined their various point-of-sale systems down to one system.
By going cashless, Unger said that it frees up the agency to better do its job.
“We’re not paying for armored car service. We don’t have to pay for an employee to be able to shuttle cash back and forth or to have our law enforcement officers doing that,” he said. “Instead, they get to focus on doing law enforcement, providing emergency services.”
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Plaintiffs only seek restoration of cash payments at NPS sites
While the people who filed the lawsuit acknowledged that going cashless has benefitted the park service, they say that “NPS’s violation of federal law cannot be overlooked in favor of any purported benefit NPS Cashless could hope to achieve.”
The lawsuit is asking that the park service restore cash options for visitors, saying that millions of Americans do not have access to bank accounts.
Their lawyer, Ray Flores, told USA TODAY that his clients “are merely asserting their right to pay with American money to enter some of America’s National Parks.”
“They seek no monetary award,” he said, adding that “Children’s Health Defense is financially backing the lawsuit.”
Flores added that the National Park Service’s response to the lawsuit is due on May 16.
The park service did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for a comment on the case.
Contributing: Eve Chen, USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: National Park Service sued over cashless entry