Demonstrators Ask Judge to Affirm their Right to Display Anti-Trump Signs Unlawfully Censored as “Obscene”

WASHINGTON – Demonstrators with Accountability NOW USA filed a motion for a preliminary injunction today, asking the court to protect their ability to display two small signs that call attention to alleged sexual misconduct by President Trump while their lawsuit over the legality of those signs continues.

The demonstrators, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia (ACLU-D.C.), sued federal officials on April 23, 2026 for violating their First Amendment rights. The lawsuit alleges that the National Park Service (NPS) threatened to take action against the demonstrators over two small signs displayed at their ongoing, permitted demonstration against the Trump administration in Washington, D.C. One sign read: “TRUMP RAPED LITTLE GIRLS.” The other read: “KIDS, IF YOUR PARENTS ARE MAGA, THEY LOVE CHILD RAPISTS.” These signs, displayed after news reports about sexual misconduct allegations concerning Donald Trump contained in the Epstein files, led to numerous conversations between volunteers and passersby regarding President Trump’s behavior, morality, and fitness to continue in office.

On April 15, 2026, NPS asserted that the signs included “obscenity” that is “not protected by the First Amendment” and is “unlawful on federal land.” Officials ordered Accountability NOW USA to remove the signs and threatened further action if they did not comply. The demonstrators now face what today’s court filing calls “an imminent and realistic threat of harm in the form of revocation of its permit, dismantling of its demonstration, or other sanctions should it continue to display its signs.”

“What is obscene here is Donald Trump’s alleged conduct,” said Anita Carey, organizer with Accountability NOW USA. “I am not surprised that the President’s subordinates want to prevent us from calling attention to it.”

“We are asking the court for swift action because every day that these demonstrators’ speech is muzzled is a day that threatens all of our First Amendment rights,” said Laura Follansbee, staff attorney at ACLU-D.C. “No one should fear retaliation for exercising one of our most fundamental rights as Americans.”

To be deemed legally obscene, a matter must satisfy all three elements of the “Miller” test, which is derived from major Supreme Court cases including Miller v. California. According to the Department of Justice, the three pillars of this test, all of which must be met, are:

1. Whether the average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, finds that the matter, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interests (i.e., an erotic, lascivious, abnormal, unhealthy, degrading, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion);
2. Whether the average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, finds that the matter depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way (i.e., ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, masturbation, excretory functions, lewd exhibition of the genitals, or sado-masochistic sexual abuse); and
3. Whether a reasonable person finds that the matter, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.