Federal Judge Blocks Kennedy Center From Inscribing Trump’s Name on Building

Breaking: The Kennedy Center board has just voted to close the venue immediately. Read more here.

A federal judge has shut down the Kennedy Center board’s latest attempt to put President Trump’s name on the institution’s exterior, ruling Tuesday that only Congress can authorize such a tribute, according to The New York Times.

Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the Federal District Court in Washington wrote in his order that the center’s leadership “cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else” without congressional approval, the Times reported, adding that the board’s resolution defied both a standing court order and federal statute.

The ruling is the second setback in four months for the effort. The board – chaired by Trump himself – first added the president’s name to the center’s formal title in December, crediting him with securing $257 million for a major renovation. Judge Cooper struck that renaming down in May, finding that the authority to rename the institution dedicated to President Kennedy rests with Congress alone. The lettering came off the marble while the center appealed.

Last month the board tried a narrower approach, approving an inscription beneath the building’s main signage that would read “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump.” Attorneys for Representative Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat who has been suing the center in her capacity as an ex officio board member, characterized the move as an open act of defiance and asked the court to intervene. A second proposed inscription, tied to a Trump-named endowment fund, was left unresolved because the center said it would not move forward until the fund reaches $100 million.

Justice Department attorneys argued in filings that recognition for the president is essential to the center’s financial survival, warning that donors would abandon the institution and renovation work would halt without it. Beatty’s legal team framed that position as holding the center hostage. Since Trump assumed control of the institution at the start of his second term, the Kennedy Center has weathered artist cancellations, sharp attendance declines and departing donors.

At issue is a provision in the center’s governing statute barring additional memorials or memorial-style plaques in public areas of the building. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has not yet weighed in on the broader naming question, which could eventually land at the Supreme Court.

The decision landed hours before a board meeting at which members were expected to take up – for a third time – a two-year closure of the center’s main building for renovations, citing deteriorating conditions that included a large section of plaster falling from the Grand Foyer ceiling during a storm this month.