Through policies that changed so frequently, randomly and arbitrarily as to preclude the existence of any true standard policy, the National Park Service ("NPS") and Independence Visitor Center Corporation ("IVCC") enforced censorship at Independence National Historical Park ("INHP"), a unit of the NPS in Philadelphia. Furthermore, the IVCC, with the complicit oversight of NPS, retaliated against The Constitutional Walking Tour ("The Constitutional") for challenging these random and arbitrary acts of censorship. Such retaliation by the IVCC, with the approval of NPS, irreparably damaged a critical business relationship between The Constitutional and Where Magazine.
Censorship at America's Birthplace
On May 25, 2007, Bill Moore, former President and CEO of the IVCC, gave his staff instructions at the Independence Visitor Center's ("IVC") Main Information & Sales Desk to inform The Constitutional that it would no longer be allowed to distribute its new 2007 marketing brochure, The Independent, inside of the Federally owned Independence Visitor Center, despite the fact that the same content had previously been deemed acceptable in The Constitutional’s prior brochures and in turn distributed at the IVC. Copies of The Independent at the Independence Visitor Center were confiscated and removed by the IVCC's management from all display racks at the Independence Visitor Center, including at the IVC's Main Information & Sales Desk.
On information and belief, Mr. Moore did not like The Independent since he viewed it as competitive with the "Historic Philadelphia Gazette" (also just referred to as "The Gazette"), another news pamphlet/brochure distributed by the Independence Visitor Center. NPS and Historic Philadelphia, Inc. ("HPI"), have officially collaborated for many years on publishing The Gazette which is taxpayer funded and which serves as the official news pamphlet/brochure of INHP; "the Gazette is a joint venture of HPI and the National Park Service." Additionally, according to Mr. Moore, the IVCC has “regular discussions with the staff that publishes the Historic Philadelphia Gazette regarding content and information.”
To that end, The Constitutional has regularly requested that HPI, NPS and the IVCC include editorial coverage on The Constitutional. Additionally, The Constitutional has offered to pay for advertising in The Gazette, but meaningful and ongoing coverage was refused, even though The Gazette has featured many ongoing activities in the INHP area from various third parties and NPS's Dennis Reidenbach acknowledged that The Constitutional has been providing value-added and complementary interpretive programming to INHP's visitors to Philadelphia. Notably, during his tenure with the IVCC (including during the relevant time period of Summer 2007), Mr. Moore also served as the Chairman and then Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of Historic Philadelphia, Inc. As well, NPS's senior management officials have served on the Board of Directors of the private company, HPI, including: Mary Bomar, Director, NPS; Dennis Reidenbach, Northeast Regional Director, NPS; and Cynthia MacLeod, Superintendent, INHP.
On July 1, 2007, Mr. Bari sent Mr. Moore an email requesting that Mr. Moore reconsider his position and grant permission to have The Independent distributed at the Independence Visitor Center's Main Information & Sales Desk in a similar fashion to The Constitutional’s other brochures and the Historic Philadelphia Gazette:
"We would like to be able to distribute ‘The Independent’ news pamphlet which The Constitutional produced as its marketing collateral for the Summer 2007 season with a colorful picture map of Historic Philadelphia (which is very similar to the picture map of our very popular self-guided tour brochure). We think that The Independent is very complementary to the IVC and the other informative brochures and publications which are distributed at the IVC. In addition to The Constitutional, this current issue of The Independent features news and visitor information on King Tut [special exhibit at The Franklin Institute], the Tut Trolley, numerous INHP sites, the Art Museum, Rittenhouse Square, and City Hall. Plus, The Independent promotes the IVC and its address numerous times."On July 1, 2007, Mr. Moore responded via email, "NPS has asked that the Gazette be in the only news pamphlet in distribution [at the IVC] at this time."
On July 1, 2007, based on Mr. Moore’s representation that NPS had denied The Constitutional permission to distribute The Independent inside the Independence Visitor Center, The Constitutional appealed to the NPS's Dennis Reidenbach, Superintendent of INHP and member of the IVCC's Board of Directors, to reverse NPS’s decision immediately, particularly in light of the critical and imminent July 4th holiday period.
On July 9, 2007, Mr. Moore sent a letter to Mr. Reidenbach, Superintendent of INHP, with copies to Christine Keates, General Manager of the IVCC, NPS management, as well as staffers from the offices of United States Senators Arlen Specter and Robert Casey, detailing various reasons why Mr. Moore believed that The Independent should not be distributed at the Independence Visitor Center; curiously, Mr. Moore did not send a copy to The Constitutional Walking Tour of his July 9, 2007 letter to Mr. Reidenbach.
On July 10, 2007 at 10:00 AM, Mr. Reidenbach and the NPS reversed its ad-hoc policy, and informed The Constitutional that The Constitutional was indeed allowed to distribute The Independent at the Independence Visitor Center, since:
"[T]here is useful park and city information featured in The Independent...distribution [of The Independent] is limited to the [IVC] main information desk, tour staging area [at the Independence Visitor Center] and the CWT table in the north end of the [Independence Visitor Center] building." (emphasis added) (Note: the table to which Mr. Reidenbach referred was only allowed to be used by The Constitutional for several days around the July 4, 2007 holiday period)On July 10, 2007 at 4:00 PM, Mr. Reidenbach called The Constitutional and informed The Constitutional that he had reversed his decision yet again; specifically NPS would not allow any distribution of The Independent at the Independence Visitor Center or within Independence National Historical Park.
On July 11, 2007, Mr. Bari memorialized the confusing conversation which he had with Mr. Reidenbach on July 10, 2007 and sent Mr. Reidenbach a request for immediate reconsideration to distribute The Independent:
"I find the ‘conflicting guidance’, as you referred to it, quite curious at best. You claimed again in the call that INHP has nothing personal against us or The Constitutional, and that the decision to not allow distribution of The Independent was not punitive… As I understood it from the call, you made several statements about The Independent: 1) you referred to The Independent as an advertisement, 2) you referred to The Independent as an ad supported brochure promoting a for-profit entity, 3) you were worried that an entity such as Centipede Tours might start its own ad supported brochure, and 4) you said that the presentation of The Independent is similar to The Gazette… The bottom line is that this is a silly waste of time for all parties, and it has nothing to do with The Independent being ad supported or not, promoting a for profit entity or not, publishing The Independent with its current substance, or any of the other explicitly stated arguments set forth by INHP and IVC. Rather, this has to do with the form of The Independent and the misperception that The Independent competes with The Gazette…"On July 20, 2007, Mr. Reidenbach wrote to Mr. Bari and stated:
"I apologize for any confusion that resulted from conflicting guidance on the distribution of ‘The Independent’ at the Independence Visitor Center in my email message and follow up conversation with you on July 10th… I don’t agree with your claim that ‘The Independent’ does not compete with the park’s newspaper ‘The Gazette’. The Independent’s graphic design and content is very similar to ‘The Gazette’ and could easily confuse park visitors. As I stated before, ‘The Independent’ is primarily a product advertisement and distribution should be limited. The Constitutional Walking Tour (CWT) guides will not be permitted to distribute a product advertisement (The Independent) to visitors inside the IVC, including the tour staging area. I will, however, allow ‘The Independent’ to be distributed by your staff to each person who has purchased a CWT ticket as your tour departs the IVC. It may not be distributed to any other visitors within the building or elsewhere on park property."On July 27, 2007, Mr. Bari had a detailed phone discussion with Darla Sidles, Assistant/Deputy Superintendent of INHP, and Mr. Bari memorialized his conversation with Ms. Sidles via email on July 28, 2007 and copied Mr. Reidenbach and Mary Bomar, Director of the NPS:
"On the subject with distributing The Independent, you expressed that it was a '2 fold issue' pertaining to INHP's refusal to allow distribution of The Independent:Additionally, on July 28, 2007, Mr. Bari emailed Ms. Sidles and copied Mr. Reidenbach and Mary Bomar, Director of the NPS:
1) The Independent is a 'product advertisement'
and
2) The 'biggest issue is that The Independent looks like The Gazette' and that The Independent competes with 'The Gazette.'"
"The painstaking twisted logic of INHP is frustrating and unfair when it comes to The Independent and moreover is directed at The Constitutional [and not any of The Constitutional's competitors or any other third party 'product advertisements'], notwithstanding ongoing and preemptive assurances to the contrary from Dennis [Reidenbach] and you. Allowing us to hand out The Independent to visitors [inside of the Independence Visitor Center] who have already purchased tickets defeats the purpose of our product advertisement which you well know is designed to get people to take our tours."The rapidly changing justifications for censoring The Constitutional's 2007 Summer brochure/news pamphlet called The Independent demonstrated the lack of any real policy by the NPS and the IVCC on the display and distribution of literature for visitors at the Independence Visitor Center at Independence National Historical Park.
Instead, both the NPS and IVCC arbitrarily justified the exclusion and censorship of The Independent for several changing reasons: on July 1, 2007, because The Independent was a "news pamphlet" that competed with The Gazette; on July 9, 2007, because The Independent "focused on a commercial for-profit tour company"; on July 20, 2007, because The Independent could "confuse park visitors"; and on July 27, 2007, because The Independent is a "product advertisement" that "competes with The Gazette" and the "biggest issue is that The Independent looks like The Gazette."
According to the National Park Service Management Policies 2006,
"All policy must be articulated in writing and must be approved by an NPS official who has been delegated authority to issue the policy. Policy must be published or otherwise made available to the public — particularly those whom it affects — and those who must implement it in the Washington office, regional offices, and parks.”The NPS clearly did not have an articulated and formal policy regarding literature distribution at the IVC. As such, the actions of the NPS, were in violation of the NPS Management Policies 2006 since all policy was not articulated in writing, and the policy was not published or otherwise made available to the public or to The Constitutional. The lack of compliance with the NPS Management Policies along with the random and arbitrary acts by the NPS and IVCC against The Constitutional materially damaged The Constitutional and derogated the NPS values of fair treatment at INHP.
According to Mr. Moore’s July 9, 2007 letter to Mr. Reidenbach, one of the pretexts for this exclusion of The Independent was that “the majority of the content of ‘The Independent’ is focused on a commercial for-profit tour company [The Constitutional]…The Independent has information on how to advertise in this publication as opposed to the Gazette which does not accept advertising.”
In fact, numerous other brochures and publications from for-profit companies as well as advertising supported publications were then and are now still being distributed inside of the Independence Visitor Center, including at the Independence Visitor Center Information Main Information & Sales Desk.
According to the IVCC's 2007 IVCC Annual Report, the Independence Visitor Center had an "an expansive selection of over 600,000 brochures and maps". These hundreds, if not thousands, of unique publications, maps and brochures have been produced by both for-profit and non-profit companies and/or produced without input or approval from IVCC. Most of these publications are focused on non-INHP related content, and many include third party advertisements, including advertisements for alcohol, gambling and even adult entertainment (i.e., strip clubs/gentlemen's clubs). (See Note 1 below) All of these publications potentially competed with The Gazette for visitor attention and created the same risk of “confusion,” yet neither the NPS nor any of the last three Superintendents of INHP -- Mr. Reidenbach, Darla Sidles and Cynthia MacLeod -- have objected to or prohibited any of these publications from distribution at INHP including at the Independence Visitor Center.
On July 11, 2007, when The Constitutional pointed this inconsistency out to the NPS and IVCC, The Constitutional mentioned, among numerous other examples of publications containing for-profit advertisements, the distribution of Where Philadelphia (Where Magazine), a publication in which The Constitutional itself had invested and paid to advertise, and in which editorial coverage had been provided of The Constitutional’s tours and services. It appears that Mr. Moore was well aware of The Constitutional’s prior relationship with Where Philadelphia, and moreover, Mr. Moore was also keenly aware of the influence that Where Magazine wielded in the Philadelphia hospitality industry, both with respect to visitors and to the trade (i.e., hotel concierges, hotel managers, etc.). To those ends, the IVC paid to advertise in Where Magazine, and the IVC has been prominently and consistently featured in editorial coverage by Where Magazine.
Thereafter, Mr. Moore and/or the IVCC management, acting with the knowledge of Mr. Moore, provided the publisher of Where Magazine with false information about The Constitutional’s position, stating that The Constitutional had objected to Where Philadelphia being distributed inside the Independence Visitor Center. In fact, The Constitutional had no such objection to Where Magazine, and referenced Where Magazine among many other publications only to demonstrate the arbitrary, capricious, unfair, bad faith and pretextual reasons for the IVCC’s and NPS's censorship of The Constitutional’s publication - The Independent.
Prompted by Mr. Moore’s and the IVCC’s false and disparaging remarks, on August 27, 2007, Laura Burkhardt, Group Publisher, Morris Visitor Publications, which publishes Where Magazine, sent a threatening and retaliatory letter to The Constitutional stating that the IVCC informed her The Constitutional had demanded Where Philadelphia be pulled from the Independence Visitor Center racks:
"The Independence Visitor Center has informed me of your demands to pull Where Philadelphia from their racks. Since you find our publication so objectionable, I have asked our editor, Karen Gross to make sure that there is no mention of your tours in any listings or editorial in Where or any of our many ancillary products. This includes but is not limited to the Where Map, the Where Guest book and the Phlash Quick Guide. As we add new products annually, we will continue to be diligent and not mention your tours."The Constitutional responded immediately to Ms. Burkhardt by phone and by email on August 27, 2010,
"Unfortunately, we were not able to stop the press on our September issue which includes information on your Breakfast with Betsy program as well as a listing about your tours in general. We are sorry for that and I will be sure to print information in our September newsletter which goes to over 800 members of the hospitality community to retract that so that you are in no way associated with our publications. Please make sure to remove us from your press release mailings and e-mail blasts so that we do not make this mistake again."
"As the world's leading publisher of visitor magazines with publications in over 43 cities, many affluent travelers ask for Where by name. I am sure that the over 135,000 readers monthly of Where Philadelphia will do the same at the IVCC as well as at the many hotels where we distribute through our extensive relationships. Best of luck to you and continued success." (emphasis added)
"Thank you for your time on the phone today to discuss your August 27, 2007 letter to me about the Independence Visitor Center (IVC). I really appreciate you bringing your concerns to my attention, and I think that the IVC's and Park Service's actions in limiting your distribution are not right. By way of background, the IVC and Independence National Historical Park completely removed The Constitutional’s Summer 2007 brochure (“The Independent”) from distribution within the IVC, questioning the content and stating that they would not distribute the brochure since it was ad-supported and promoted a for-profit entity. As discussed, we simply pointed out that many, many other publications distributed in the IVC are not only ad-supported, they are produced by for-profit entities and contain ads for many area attractions outside of the Independence Park area."In addition to reaching out to Ms. Burkhardt at Where Magazine, the actions of the IVCC, enabled by the NPS, caused The Constitutional to expend more of its limited resources to have its legal counsel send correspondence to the IVCC's counsel and to the NPS's Dennis Reidenbach and Darla Sidles.
"For the record, we NEVER requested that Where Magazine be pulled from the IVC’s racks. We like Where, and we think that it is a high quality source of information. If we had this much influence that the IVC is inappropriately, inaccurately and falsely stating to you that we do, we would use it to have The Independent distributed. We would NOT use our influence, if we had any, to affect Where Magazine which sometimes promotes us. The bottom line is that we do NOT make policy for the National Park Service or the Visitor Center, in spite of what you have been incorrectly told."
"We think that it is quite ironic that in the land where our Founding Fathers guaranteed us various rights including with the First Amendment that we are restricted in such arbitrary and unfair ways as to the distribution of our respective literature."
On August 29, 2007, The Constitutional's legal counsel at Blank Rome sent a letter to Mark DePillis, the IVCC's counsel at Ballard Spahr, with copies to NPS's Mr. Reidenbach and Ms. Sidles, expressing serious concerns over the IVCC's retaliatory actions and calling for greater cooperation between the IVCC and The Constitutional. In this letter, The Constitutional's counsel pointed out that "Bill Moore and Christine Keates inappropriately shared incorrect, incomplete and misleading information with Philadelphia Trolley Works to terminate its long-standing partnership with The Constitutional on August 24, 2007." The letter also cited that "the IVC has retaliated against The Constitutional by inappropriately sharing incorrect, incomplete and misleading information with Where Magazine." Additionally, the letter acknowledged the disparity in reason exhibited by the IVCC in holding The Constitutional responsible for IVCC's retaliatory actions: "If The Constitutional has as much influence as the IVC is inaccurately stating that it does (to third parties), it would certainly not use that influence to affect Where Magazine which sometimes promotes The Constitutional."
In typical IVCC fashion, on September 7, 2007, Mr. DePillis responded with a letter to The Constitutional's lawyer, in which the IVCC claimed absolutely no responsibility for its actions, but instead had the audacity to blame The Constitutional for "self-inflicted" damages:
"The accusations you make against Independence Visitor Center Corporation in your August 29, 2007 letter are misinformed, legally unsupported and reckless. The simple truth of the matter is that the difficulties that your client, The Constitutional Walking Tour, is experiencing with its relationships with Philadelphia Trolley Works and Where Magazine are self-inflicted... Your suggestion that the IVCC is in any way responsible for any reaction that Philadelphia Trolley Works/Big Bus or Where Magazine may have had to the implementation of policy changes by the NPS which your client demanded is at best absurd." (emphasis added)Here, the IVCC attempted to falsely distance itself from its lock-step actions undertaken with the NPS, and to that end, the IVCC attributed to the NPS the responsibility for removing Where Magazine from the IVC. However, such an effort to separate the IVCC and NPS policy rang completely hollow given the long history of hand-in-hand cooperation and coordination between IVCC and NPS.
For example, during the entire time that the NPS and the IVCC censored The Independent, the IVCC's operation of the Independence Visitor Center was governed by the NPS's Special Use Permits, where the IVCC managed the IVC "subject to the supervision of the [NPS's] Superintendent [Ms. MacLeod and her superior, Mr. Reidenbach]," and "consent of, the National Park Service." Further, during the entire time that the NPS and IVCC censored The Constitutional and interfered with its business relationships, NPS Officals served on the Board of Directors of the IVCC.
The commitment to unified action by the NPS and the IVCC had been borne out in the actions and statements of the parties. On September 7, 2007, The Constitutional was summoned to a meeting of tour operators by the IVCC's Ms. Keates and Mr. Moore "to get together with all of the other tour operators that use the north end of the Independence Visitor Center to discuss the arrangements and to see if there is a better solution for the staging area." Mr. Moore used the meeting to disparage and to marginalize The Constitutional, and to provide a forum for Ride the Ducks and Trolley Works to argue that The Constitutional should not enjoy any marketing or sales presence comparable to the presence enjoyed by both Ride the Ducks and Philadelphia Trolley Works dating back to 2006. It was at this meeting that NPS's Darla Sidles, Acting Superintendent of INHP, said that INHP was in "lock step" with the IVCC on all policy matters.
On February 11, 2009, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a Letter to the Editor from Cynthia MacLeod, Superintendent of Independence National Historical Park who reported to Mr. Reidenbach, in which Ms. MacLeod affirmed this close working relationship between the NPS and IVCC: "For 10 years, the National Park Service has enjoyed working side by side with the Independence Visitor Center Corporation at the Independence Visitor Center at Sixth and Market Streets."
Conclusion
In spite of The Constitutional's efforts to promptly mitigate the damages inflicted by the IVCC's actions enabled by the NPS, the bell had already been rung. As such, the damage was done, and the bell could not be unrung. First, The Constitutional was denied the benefit of its Summer 2007 marketing communication - The Independent. The Constitutional had invested its limited reources to design, develop, publish and distribute The Independent, but the NPS and the IVCC censored and confiscated The Independent.
Second and moreover, as a consequence of IVCC’s provision of false, incomplete and misleading information, Where Magazine undertook several steps which damaged The Constitutional, including removing any mention of The Constitutional’s tours in listings or editorial coverage in Where Magazine or any of its ancillary visitor publications and hospitality trade publications and events, thereby depriving The Constitutional of access to an estimated one hundred and thirty-five thousand (135,000) monthly readers of Where Magazine in the Philadelphia market (as per Where Magazine's statistics).
Since September 2007 and continuing through to at least May 2011, Where Philadelphia has intentionally excluded The Constitutional Walking Tour from its publications because of the actions of the IVCC supervised and consented to by the National Park Service. Additionally, Where Philadelphia’s threatened retaliation against The Constitutional included communications “to over eight hundred (800) members of the hospitality community to retract [information about The Constitutional and its tour related offerings including at that time in 2007, Breakfast with Betsy] that so that you [The Constitutional] are in no way associated with our publications.” Where Magazine’s actions, caused by the false information provided by the IVCC and Mr. Moore, and enabled by the NPS, have damaged The Constitutional’s ability to reach visitors to Philadelphia and members of the hospitality community who influence consumer purchasing decisions of tours and tour related services.
The arbitrary, capricious, and harmful actions taken by NPS and IVCC in violation of The Constitutional's Constitutional rights were not unprecedented. The NPS's Reidenbach and MacLeod knew or should have known that their actions violated clearly established Constitutional rights of due process.
This clear disregard for these Constitutional rights--included in the Bill of Rights, which became law at INHP--represented a distinct derogation of INHP's values, despite the explicit provision in Congressional Public Law 106-131, the Gateway [Independence] Visitor Center Authorization Act,
"Nothing in this section authorizes the Secretary [of the Interior] or the [Independence Visitor Center] Corporation to take any actions in derogation of the preservation and protection of the values and resources of Independence National Historical Park."As such, the NPS was in clear violation of the NPS's enabling legislation - Public Law 106-131 - by having the IVCC operate the Independence Visitor Center, with oversight from NPS, in a random and arbitrary manner as a personal fiefdom as opposed to a public trust.
Epilogue
Given the egregious actions of the Independence Visitor Center Corporation and the National Park Service in Summer 2007 with regard to censoring The Independent news pamphlet/brochure and with retaliating against The Constitutional Walking Tour, and in turn damaging The Constitutional's relationship with Where Magazine, it is not surprising that both the IVCC and NPS tried to silence The Constitutional with a special Confidentiality Agreement requirement. In Summer 2008, the IVCC and NPS tried to silence The Constitutional with an an overly broad and onerous draft Confidentiality Agreement that would bind The Constitutional to not disclose an almost unbounded range of information in perpetuity, including these punitive actions by the NPS and IVCC. Specifically, the Confidentiality Agreement prohibited the discussion or disclosure of almost anything pertaining to the IVCC including the following: "any information relating to IVCC," "any information relating to the [Independence] Visitor Center," and "any information relating to any licensees, tenants or vendors at the Visitor Center." This was just another glaring example of how the actions of the NPS and IVCC shocked the conscience since their tactics represented a very high level of abuse of power in which the NPS and its agent, the IVCC, acted randomly and arbitrarily, against The Constitutional.
Note 1
As discussed, there have been many third party publications distributed at the Independence Visitor Center inside of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia including many publications which are primarily focused on non-INHP related content, and many include third party advertisements, including advertisements for alcohol, gambling and even adult entertainment (i.e., strip clubs/gentlemen's clubs). On July 11, 2007, The Constitutional's Jon Bari sent a letter to Dennis Reidenbach, Regional Director of the National Park Service, Northeast Region, and stated,
"If you and Bill Moore [President and CEO of the Independence Visitor Center Corporation] are sincerely concerned about content and advertising content distributed at the IVC [Independence Visitor Center], I would suggest that you take a closer look at pages 89-90 of the current Spring/Summer Official Visitors Guide which includes ads for “adult entertainment” and “gentlemen’s clubs”; the July 2007 issue of “Where Philadelphia” which includes an entire section on “Gentlemen’s Clubs” on page 45; as well as the “Philadelphia Where (Magazine) Maps – 2006-2007” which contains an ad for Gentlemen’s Clubs juxtaposed to an ad for the IVC. All three of these publications and many others are freely and routinely distributed at the IVC and have been for years with similar adult-themed advertising supported content."
"In Bill Moore’s letter to you dated July 9, 2007, Mr. Moore argued that,
'It is easy to imagine how things would appear if great care were not taken as to the form and substance of publications being distributed.'"
"It is completely hypocritical and disingenuous for Mr. Moore to be concerned about The Independent’s “form and substance”, but not the content of some of these other materials that are distributed at the IVC, (when in fact these publications and brochures are not necessarily produced for tours which start at the IVC, cover the INHP area, and for which the IVC earns ticket sales commissions like it does with The Constitutional)."
"In addition, there is a prominent graphical link from the homepage of the IVC Web site to the Official Visitors Guide which, to reiterate, contains some risqué ads, that are certainly not promoting and fostering the mission of INHP."On July 20, 2007, Mr. Reidenbach wrote the following letter to The Constitutional Walking Tour,
"While the National Park Service does not take a position on the merits of these organizations, in reviewing the advertisements [for Gentlemen's Clubs, etc.] I have found nothing that would preclude their continued distribution in the IVC [inside of a Federal facility at Independence National Historical Park]."Nonetheless, Mr. Reidenbach also stated on July 20, 2007,
"As I stated before, "The Independent" is primarily a product advertisement and distribution should be limited."One could argue that the censorship of certain product ads for green family friendly walking tours coupled with the free distribution of product advertisements for gentlemen's clubs and casinos inside of one of our national parks derogates "the preservation and protection of the values and resources of Independence National Historical Park", as detailed in Public Law 106-131.
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Exhibits:
Letter from Laura Burkhardt, Where Magazine, to The Constitutional, August 27, 2007
Copy of The Independent, The Constitutional's 2007 Marketing Brochure
Email from Bill Moore, President and CEO of the IVCC, to Dennis Reidenbach, Superintendent of INHP, June 5, 2007
Email from The Constitutional to Darla Sidles, Dennis Reidenbach, and Mary Bomar, NPS, July 28, 2007.
National Park Service Management Policies, 2006.
Letter from Bill Moore to Dennis Reidenbach, July 9, 2007
Letter from The Constitutional's counsel at Blank Rome to Dennis Reidenbach, November 14, 2006
Biography of Bill Moore
Emails between Bill Moore and The Constitutional, July 1, 2007
Emails between Bill Moore and The Constitutional, July 1, 2007 (with emphasis added)
Email from The Constitutional to Dennis Reidenbach, July 1, 2007
IVCC Board of Directors
Email from Dennis Reidenbach to The Constitutional, 10AM, July 10, 2007
Email from The Constitutional to Dennis Reidenbach, July 11, 2007
Email from Reidenbach to The Constitutional, July 20, 2007
IVCC Annual Report, 2007
Letter from The Constitutional to Dennis Reidenbach, July 11, 2007
Email from The Constitutional to Laura Burkhardt, Where Magazine, August 27, 2007
Letter from The Constitutional's counsel at Blank Rome to the IVCC's counsel at Ballard Spahr, August 29, 2007
Letter from the IVCC's counsel at Ballard Spahr to The Constitutional's counsel at Blank Rome, September 7, 2007
Special Use Permits issued by NPS to IVCC for the Operation of the Independence Visitor Center
Letter from the editor from Cynthia MacLeod, Superintendent of INHP, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 11, 2009
Gateway Visitor Center Authorization Act, Public Law 106-131, December 7, 1999
Confidentiality Agreement proposed by the IVCC, July 25, 2008
Sample ads for “adult entertainment” and gambling which regularly appeared in the Official Visitors Guide magazines and Where Philadelphia Magazines that were distributed at the Independence Visitor Center inside of Independence National Historical Park, a unit of the National Park Service, in Philadelphia
