WASHINGTON – An environmental advocacy group filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the National Park Service, seeking to remove President Donald Trump’s face from the 2026 America the Beautiful Pass, which traditionally features photographs of national parks selected through an annual contest.
The Center for Biological Diversity submitted the 16-page complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing that replacing a contest-winning photo of Glacier National Park violates the rules of the photography competition, which requires entries to depict federal public lands or waters. The group said the change also undermines the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act of 2004, which established the annual pass to provide public access to federal recreational lands with entry fees.
The lawsuit asks U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to declare the new design unlawful, vacate the decision, and bar the use of any pass displaying Trump’s image. Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, called the change a politically motivated move that inappropriately injects partisan messaging into the national parks, which he described as “the pride and joy of the American people.”
The legal challenge comes amid broader efforts by the Trump administration to realign public lands policies, including replacing Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth as free-entry days with Flag Day and Trump’s birthday, applicable only to U.S. residents. New pricing for the annual pass sets fees at $80 for residents and $250 for nonresidents, while international visitors without a pass must pay $100 to enter the 11 most-visited parks, in addition to standard entrance fees.
The controversy began when the National Parks Foundation selected Akshay Joshi’s Glacier National Park photo from 7,000 entries in June 2025. In November, the Interior Department announced the Trump and George Washington portraits would replace contest-winning images for the new annual passes. The agency later clarified that Trump’s image would appear only on the Annual Resident Pass, while the nonresident pass would feature the Glacier photo, but the Center for Biological Diversity criticized the decision as unlawful.
The organization emphasized that the 2026 pass represents a historic first in replacing a contest-winning photo with a sitting president’s portrait, calling the decision “controversial” and “inappropriate.” Over the past dozen years, the America the Beautiful Pass has consistently highlighted parks such as the Everglades, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Acadia, and Redwood National Forests, among others.
Suckling concluded, “America the Beautiful means wild rivers and majestic mountains, not a headshot of a bloated, fragile, attention-seeking ego. There’s nothing beautiful about that.” The Interior Department and National Park Service did not provide a comment on the lawsuit.