EDITORIAL: Inaugural protests

Not surprisingly, the election of Donald Trump has prompted numerous groups to seek permits to protest at his inauguration. And some of these organizations are now accusing federal officials of trying to quash such dissent.

In the past, the Associated Press reported this week, inaugural committees have let the National Park Service know what land they won’t be using, allowing officials to set up areas where groups could obtain permits to assemble.

This year, however, the park service has set aside virtually all of the space for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, essentially shutting out protesters from the prime locations.

Mr. Trump’s election has prompted an unusually large number of groups to seek protest permits, including organizers of a planned women’s march on Washington scheduled for the day after the inauguration. That group hasn’t yet received a permit to gather at the Lincoln Memorial. Neither have 19 other groups who have applied for permits. According to Park Service records, their applications are all classified as pending, the AP found.

The Park Service explained in a statement that, in reserving space for inaugural activities, it is simply following regulations that have been in place since 2008 and upheld by the courts. A Park Service spokesman said the agency is “actively reviewing the pending permit applications and, as always, is committed to accommodating as many permits as it can.”

But as Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund points out, no groups have been denied permits in the past for using land around the White House and the National Mall for inaugural demonstrations. Yet this year, the agency more than a year ago reserved certain areas even though no inauguration activities are planned for those places. The net result, she says, is to empower Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee to decide what happens on the land and who gets to use it.

Ms. Verheyden-Hilliard has threatened legal action.

“This is public land. This land belongs to all of us. The park service’s role is only to act as a neutral administrator and steward of public land,” she says. “They have done a massive land grab, to the detriment of all those who want to engage in free speech activities.”

She’s correct. Regardless of where one stands on the election of Mr. Trump, protest and dissent nourish a healthy democracy. Constitutional protections for free speech and association demand that the Park Service accommodate peaceful demonstrators.