A federal judge has shut down another effort to put Donald Trump’s name on Washington’s Kennedy Center, ruling that the board cannot sidestep Congress or an earlier court order.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from adding Trump’s name to its main building and from renaming the surrounding campus in his honor. The Kennedy Center ruling marks the latest turn in a months-long legal fight over who has the authority to alter the identity of one of the country’s most prominent performing arts institutions.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote in the order, according to CNBC.
“The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted,” Cooper added.
The dispute stretches back to an earlier attempt to formally attach Trump’s name to the institution. According to Reuters, Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center could not be renamed without an act of Congress and ordered Trump’s name removed from physical signage and official materials. Workers removed the lettering from the building in June.
The legal foundation behind the Kennedy Center ruling goes back decades. According to the federal court’s May opinion, Congress originally created the National Cultural Center before renaming it for John F. Kennedy following Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. Federal law designates the institution as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and establishes it as the sole national memorial to Kennedy in Washington and the surrounding area.
The Kennedy Center’s own annual report also describes the institution as a living memorial to Kennedy. The center traces its roots to the National Cultural Center Act of 1958, while Congress formally designated it as a memorial to Kennedy in 1964.
The controversy resurfaced this summer. According to Reuters, the Kennedy Center board voted 20 to 3 on August 13 to place wording on the building that would credit Trump for its restoration and renovation. The same resolution called for the surrounding grounds to become the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, returned to court seeking to stop those changes. Reuters reported that Beatty argued the new wording did not resolve the central legal problem identified in Cooper’s earlier decision because Congress had reserved the memorial for Kennedy.
According to CNBC, the August resolution said the board wanted “to recognize and honor President Trump’s future existential and unprecedented contributions to the survival of the Center.”
Attorneys defending the Kennedy Center had argued that the proposed inscription was different from formally renaming the institution. They maintained in an August court filing that a restoration credit would simply recognize Trump’s role in renovations while leaving the official John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts name intact.
Cooper rejected that distinction for the building inscription and plaza name. The Kennedy Center ruling effectively prevents the board from using either proposal without congressional authorization.
The naming battle is unfolding as the Kennedy Center also faces major questions about its physical condition and finances. According to Reuters, board members were scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider whether the main building should close for an estimated two years of renovations. Board documents cited by Reuters said the center could struggle to meet payroll and routine maintenance obligations within weeks, while leadership has also pointed to water damage and deteriorating infrastructure.
The financial claims have become intertwined with the naming dispute. Reuters reported that board documents argued recognition for Trump could be important to maintaining his involvement in fundraising and overseeing renovations. Artists have also canceled performances during the broader leadership controversy, while major resident arts organizations have had to consider or secure alternate venues, according to Reuters.
For now, Cooper’s latest order keeps the legal boundary established in May intact. Whatever recognition the Kennedy Center board may want to give Trump, the court’s position remains that changes amounting to a new memorial on the congressionally designated Kennedy Center property require Congress to act first.
