The National Park Service has withdrawn a proposed plan to charge fees for free speech demonstrations and special events on the National Mall after facing overwhelming pushback from the public.
This is a useful story for understanding government. I don't think the National Park Service has a goal of stifling free speech or undermining the First Amendment. They're not evil; they just have their own needs as an agency, primarily, to make their job of managing the National Mall more manageable.
But their very reasonable needs conflict with our rights and liberties. The right and needs of citizens regularly conflict with the management needs of public bureaucracies. The eternal question is where we define the balance point, and how - for those who think the balance generally is on the side of rights and liberties - we preserve that balance.
In this case, with over 100,000 public comments on the proposed rules. And good on the National Park Service for backing down.