A federal judge on Sept. 15 blocked the Kennedy Center’s board from putting President Donald Trump’s name on the building’s facade or renaming its grounds in his honor.
In his new order, Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled that the plan would violate an existing injunction and the 1964 law that made the cultural center a memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy, which only Congress may alter.
The judge said that in 1983, Congress amended the 1964 law to ensure that “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”
On May 29, Cooper ordered that Trump’s name be struck from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and blocked officials from shuttering the venue for two years for renovations. Crews removed the letters in June.
The new block came in response to a motion filed by attorneys for plaintiff Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the board, in the federal lawsuit over the center’s name.
In court papers filed Sept. 14, Beatty said that the board was considering two draft resolutions: one to close the main building over safety concerns, the other to inscribe Trump’s name on the facade in exchange for his fundraising assistance. Both are set for a Sept. 15 vote.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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