Photo of the Department of Transportation building by spiggy, who was approached by a security guard while taking the image and told it was illegal to take photos of federal buildings.

In a settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union, the federal government relented that photographers are, indeed, allowed to take photos outside of federal buildings. Last November, Antonio Musumeci was arrested and had his videotape confiscated while filming a protester outside a federal courthouse in Manhattan. Musumeci was briefly detained and received a ticket for violating federal regulations, which was later dismissed, though he was threatened by officers while filming on two later occasions.

The NYCLU brought suit on Musumeci’s behalf, which ended in the federal government acceding that “the federal government acknowledges that there are no federal laws or regulations that prohibit photography outside federal courthouses.” No kidding.

While the photographers in the house may be tempted to roll their eyes at this most obvious admission of the truth, it’s fair to say this is a big deal here in Washington, D.C. We’ve written about photographer harassment many times and — as someone who knows a lot of photographers — I hear all the time about people being told to scram by security at federal buildings, citing non-existent laws (the “9/11 terrorist reasoning”). (Flickr also has a group dedicated to DC Photo Rights.) Part of the settlement includes providing federal officers with written instructions about the right to photograph outside federal courthouses.

Though the facts in this case pertained to courthouses, NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, lead counsel in the case, notes, “The regulation at issue in this case applies to all federal buildings, not only courthouses, so this settlement should extend to photography near all federal buildings nationwide.”

Of course, this has always been the case, and the issue has almost always turned on the knowledge of the security officers on-site. We’d prefer a copy of those instructions going to security at all federal buildings — but in the meantime, you can at least print out a copy of this post along with your Photographer’s Right [PDF] and keep it at the ready.