In a new twist on the District’s fight for voting rights, the folks at Stamp Act Congress have a novel idea: stamp American tender with a pro-voting rights message as a way to publicize the plight that faces the residents of the capital of the United States. That message? “Stamp Out Taxation Without Representation in Washington, D.C.”

Since we love voting rights, we love the idea. But being the law-abiding citizens and residents we generally are, we were of course curious as to the whole legality of stamping messages — good or bad — on U.S. currency. To find out, we did what any other technology-savvy person would do this day and age: we Googled it. Google Answers, the veritable Ask Jeeves of the “Do no Evil” people, supplied us with all we needed to know. According to moneyfactory.gov:

Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Provided that these erstwhile fighters for democracy aren’t looking to stamp American currency until it becomes “unfit to be reissued,” they should remain on the right side of the law. But they should still proceed carefully, and if they see any Secret Service vans parked outside their stamping parties, they should consider quick escape routes, name changes, and new countries of residence. With voting rights, of course.

If you’d like to start stamping whatever dollar bills you may have lying around, it’ll only set you back $10. And maybe six months in jail. Or a $100 fine. But it’s for a good cause, and you’d be pretty bad-ass.