U.S. District Judge Ruling on Kennedy Center Renovation Proposal Stalls
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The proposal is awaiting review by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who ruled in June that “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” The center’s board, chaired by Trump, later voted to place the new wording on the building’s facade and attach Trump’s name to its plaza.
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NPR NewsLast Friday, Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, filed an emergency motion asking U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper to stop the board from its plans to put Trump's name back on the front of the complex. The board's latest proposal, which the group approved in a meeting on Aug. 13, would put Trump's name on the entryway sign twice, and again on a third location on the complex's grounds.
Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Thursday expressed skepticism about the Kennedy Center’s intention to return President Donald Trump’s name to the historic performing arts venue by early next month, challenging the board’s insistence on moving forward even in the face of a court ruling that blocked and reversed a previous effort.
USA TodayCooper scheduled the hearing because plaintiff Rep Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who serves on the Kennedy Center's board, asked the judge to prevent Trump from putting his name back on the building in a capacity other than officially renaming the center. But Justice Department lawyers argued that "the Kennedy Center is in terrible trouble" and that without Trump's help, "the Center cannot survive, either structurally or financially."
PBS NewsHourJudge questions why Kennedy Center is moving so quickly to return Trump's name to building Just seconds after the Trump administration's lawyer, Bradley Mayers, began making his case at a nearly two-hour hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper interrupted to ask why the center needed to begin inscribing the president's name on the institution's facade as soon as Sept. 8.
NBC NewsThe judge in a court battle over efforts to add Donald Trump’s name to the front of the Kennedy Center peppered the administration’s lawyers with questions Thursday on their rush to put the president’s name back on the building.
The HillDOJ insists new Trump inscriptions are ‘not renaming’ Kennedy Center The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday defended renewed plans to inscribe President Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, insisting they do not run afoul of previous court rulings that found the changes were unlawful. A DOJ lawyer told U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper during a nearly two-hour hearing that the renowned performing arts center was…
BBC NewsThe threat to demolish the building comes just weeks after the Kennedy Center board voted to add Trump's name back to the facade of the venue and to proceed with a two-year closure for proposed renovations.
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Despite Cooper’s skepticism of the developments, he also questioned whether he had authority to block the moves as the administration appeals his earlier ruling. He pressed a lawyer for Rep. Joyce Beatty on whether he had jurisdiction in the case given the Trump administration is pursuing an appeal of his May ruling that adding Trump’s name to the building was illegal.
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USA TodayThe battle in federal court is about whether Cooper will permanently block Trump from putting his name on the building's façade and whether to prevent the venue's board from closing the building for two years of construction.
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Justice Department lawyers previously said unless the renovation project and recognition for Trump are approved, the building could be torn down and replaced with an open-air amphitheater.
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BBC NewsTrump's lawyers have argued that without the renovations the venue "will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down".
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“The Board also underscores, and the undisputed evidence demonstrates, that without the prominent recognition of The Trump Administration, and President Trump’s efforts, the donors will not contribute, and the Center will continue to be in a financial and structural death spiral,” the filing said.
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BBC News"An order blocking the Board from appropriately recognising President Trump," the lawyers argued, "will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop".
8 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 USA Today Cooper said he hoped the government will extend their initial deadline plans to put up Trump's name, giving the court more time, and that if they don't "there will be a temporary holding pattern."
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02 The Hill Judge blocks Trump administration plan to restructure housing grants A federal judge on Wednesday halted the Trump administration’s plan to overhaul a decades-old grant program targeting housing discrimination, siding with fair housing groups that argued the changes hindered their ability to work. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, who was appointed by former President Biden, ruled that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…
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03 NBC News Cooper then asked why adding Trump’s name to the building — the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts — would not violate federal appropriations rules that prevent aggrandizement, promoting a specific individual within a federal agency.
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04 Breitbart Political commentator Gretchen Carlson said Thursday on CNN’s “The Arena” that “the American people will have an insurrection” if President Donald Trump demolished the Kennedy Center.
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05 Washington Examiner Lutnick said the building would retain its congressionally designated name, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, while adding language crediting Trump for planned repairs, according to multiple videos taken outside Washington D.C.’s E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse.
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06 Associated Press Mayers responded that the timeline was in accordance with a vote earlier this month by the Trump-aligned board. As he returned to his arguments that renovations at the Kennedy Center require energy and talent, Cooper interjected again.
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07 NPR News In a statement emailed to NPR on Wednesday, a Kennedy Center spokesperson, P.J. Elliott, wrote: "This language describes a hypothetical scenario of what could happen if the center's desperately needed renovation is blocked by partisan interests."
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08 BBC News Attorneys from the justice department have also asked for President Donald Trump's name to be put back on the building after it was removed in June following a court order.
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