FREE SPEECH FIGHT: New Orleans Bureaucrats Silence Speech, Tour Guides Fight Back

http://www.ij.org/nolatours

In New Orleans, it is a crime to charge people for a talking tour without first getting permission from the government.

City officials require every tour guide to pass a history exam, undergo a drug test and an FBI criminal background check every two years merely for speaking. People who give tours without a license face fines up to $300 per occurrence and five months in jail.

The First Amendment does not allow the government to be in the business of deciding who is—and who is not—allowed to speak about various topics. That is why four New Orleans tour guides have joined with the Institute for Justice in a federal lawsuit seeking to secure their free speech rights.

Vindicating this principle will help protect the rights of countless people across the country that speak for a living—whether they speak as news reporters, stand-up comedians or tour guides. This lawsuit was filed on December 13, 2011, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
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