The Trump administration says a lawsuit seeking to bar parks like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite from ditching cash payment isn’t valid and should be dismissed.
A trio of parkgoers sued the service last year saying the recent switch to debit/credit card and park passes for entry at roughly 30 national parks denies people without bank accounts from accessing public sites. They also argued it unlawfully denies the use of U.S. currency.
But on Thursday, interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, on behalf of NPS, denied the claims in a filing, saying there is no federal law requiring sites accept cash. Pirro also said the plaintiff had not been directly injured by the policies.
The switch to cash-free is a recent phenomenon for NPS. An Arizona national monument in 2020 was the first national park site to go cashless. Since then, roughly 30 locations of the more than 400 operated by NPS made the change by accepting credit or debit cards or mobile pay.
