departmentofhomelandsecurity

Public’s Right to Photograph Federal Buildings Upheld by Settlement

On November 9th, 2009, Software programmer Antonio Musumeci was filming the arrest of a protestor outside a federal courthouse in NYC when he himself was arrested. His main camera was confiscated, but he recorded the entire encounter on a second camera (the resulting video is above). In April 2010, the New York Civil Liberties Union sued the government on Musumeci's behalf, and yesterday it was was announced that a settlement had been reached, with the government recognizing the public's right to photograph and film in public spaces outside federal buildings.