A federal judge ruled President Donald Trump can’t add his name to the Kennedy Center performing arts venue in Washington, D.C. without an act of Congress, ordering his name to be removed from the building within two weeks, and also blocking officials from shuttering the center for renovations.
A federal judge ordered Trump's name be removed from the Kennedy Center building within two weeks. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
In a 94-page ruling delivered Friday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the 1964 law establishing the Kennedy Center “makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy” and cannot bear any other name without prior approval from Congress.
Cooper ruled in favor of Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, a board member designated by Congress in 2019 who filed a lawsuit in December arguing the law prohibits the Kennedy Center board—which Trump filled with allies last year—from unilaterally renaming the center without an act of Congress.
The judge’s ruling ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the facade of the building, as well as from any official digital or physical materials.
Cooper’s ruling also temporarily blocked the Kennedy Center from being closed for two years to undergo renovations, which Trump announced in February to improve what he called a “tired, broken, and dilapidated” venue.
Cooper’s ruling said the Kennedy Center’s board elected to close the venue based on a “one-sided presentation of information” without properly considering its “full range of its statutory obligations.”
Should the board choose to close the center for renovations in the future, Cooper said the board must prepare itself with enough information to make an “independent decision” and to “both maintain and operate a premiere arts venue and its solemn duty to memorialize a fallen President.”
“By way of this opinion, the Court does not purport to dictate how the Center should be run, nor does it prescribe any particular plan for the institution—construction, closure, or otherwise—moving forward,” Cooper wrote.
Trump’s name was added to the facade of the memorial center in December, with the sign reading, “The Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts.” Days before her lawsuit was filed, Beatty told The New York Times she was muted against her will on the board call approving the decision to rename the building.
Trump made sweeping and controversial changes to the Kennedy Center last year, purging the center’s board and appointing allies, who elected Trump as the center’s chair and voted in December to add Trump’s name to the venue. The board includes close allies such as Second Lady Usha Vance, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Andrea Wynn, the wife of casino magnate and Trump donor Steve Wynn. Trump has criticized allegedly “woke” programming hosted by the institution, including LGBTQ-themed performances. “We didn’t like what they were showing and various other things,” Trump said in February, saying “some of the shows were terrible” and “a disgrace.” Trump’s takeover of the center sparked pushback from artists and a wave of cancellations, with Issa Rae and Shonda Rhimes among the artists cutting ties with the institution.
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