A federal appeals court on Tuesday shot down protesters’ challenge of regulations that allow Donald Trump’s Presidential Inauguration Committee first dibs on the location of bleachers reserved for ticket holders at Friday’s inaugural parade.
As a result of the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the inauguration committee can keep set-aside bleacher seats in place at Freedom Plaza and in front of the Trump International Hotel — prominent locations along the parade route where protesters had sought to demonstrate.
The decision is a blow to antiwar group Answer Coalition, which has challenged the National Park Services’ allocation of prime space along Pennsylvania Avenue to inaugural committees since 2005.
The group has argued that the reservation of swaths of Pennsylvania Avenue for the inaugural committee favors the incoming administration over the public, and marginalizes and unfairly excludes dissent by preventing public access to what would otherwise be prime demonstration space.