US Judge Weighs Challenge to Restore Trump's Name to Kennedy Center

An attorney for a US lawmaker on Thursday urged a federal judge to again block the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington from putting President Donald Trump's name on its facade.

 

The hearing before US District Judge Christopher Cooper marked the second time the court has been asked to stop the Kennedy Center from adding Trump's name to the building that Congress designated as a "living memorial" to John F. Kennedy, the 35th US president, who was assassinated in 1963.

 

In May, Cooper ordered the cultural and entertainment venue to remove Trump's name from the building, siding with Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio in a lawsuit challenging the renaming. Cooper said Congress had established the Kennedy Center's name and that "only Congress can change it".

 

On August 13, the Kennedy Center board, made up of Trump-appointed members, voted to alter the building's signage again. The proposed wording reads: "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump", while the centre's grounds would be named "President Donald J. Trump Plaza".

 

"We view this as outright defiance" of the court's previous order, Nathaniel Zelinsky, a lawyer for Beatty, told the judge at Thursday's hearing.

 

Beatty, who serves on the Kennedy Center's board by virtue of her position in Congress, sued after the centre changed its marble facade in December to read: "The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

 

The Kennedy Center removed Trump's name from the facade in June, and a large tarp has covered the wall since then. The administration earlier lost a bid in a federal appeals court to put Trump's name back on the building while it appeals Cooper's order.

 

Speaking outside the court before the hearing, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whom Trump appointed to help oversee the Kennedy Center, defended the board's latest move.

 

"The board overwhelmingly voted for this," Lutnick told reporters.

 

He praised the president's efforts to restore the building, saying Trump "has the power, and he has the expertise, to get this done".

 

At the hearing, Cooper rejected suggestions from the administration that his oversight of Beatty's lawsuit was hindering repairs to the building. He said his earlier order allowed the administration to proceed with necessary work.

 

"No one is stopping the centre from doing any necessary repairs," Cooper said. "The notion that continued judicial involvement is standing in the way of accomplishing necessary repairs is not quite fair."

 

In a court filing this week, the administration said the proposed new wording would not violate the court's injunction because the building would still be called the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It said the phrase "renovated and restored by" merely acknowledged Trump's role.

 

"There is no renaming here," Justice Department lawyer Brantley Mayers argued at Thursday's hearing.

 

The administration's filing outlined what it described as Trump's efforts to save the Kennedy Center, including a planned two-year closure for renovations.

 

"Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site," the administration said.

 

After the hearing, the administration told the court that it would take no action to add Trump's name to the building until October 8. Cooper had asked the administration to consider extending an earlier deadline to give the court additional time to consider the issues.

 

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