Ansel Adams Act seeks to restore photographers’ First Amendment rights

Jan07

by Sindy Cator on January 7, 2015 at 10:08 pm

It’s a sad state of affairs, but increasingly common in the US, that photographers on every level — from professional to DSLR hobbyist to iPhoneographer — are prevented from shooting whatever they want, wherever they want, in the public space. Texas Republican Steve Stockman is trying to end photographer restrictions with HR 5893, otherwise known as the Ansel Adams Act, introduced on January 2. The bill explicitly states that “still and motion photographs are speech” and that government attempts through threat and intimidation to prevent people from photographing or otherwise recording in the public space violate the First Amendment to the US Constitution.…