Miami
Judge blocks another effort to put Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center
The ruling bars the arts center’s board from adding inscriptions and renaming the grounds without congressional approval. The decision addresses a resolution backed by the Trump-aligned leadership of the institution.
A federal judge again blocked the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from putting Donald Trump’s name on the building or renaming the grounds, finding that such a move requires approval from Congress, according to CBS News Miami and NPR Politics.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in favor of Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat and board member who sued over changes pushed at the institution. CBS News Miami reported that Beatty argued the latest effort to recognize the president violates federal law and sought emergency relief to stop it.
According to that outlet, the order bars the main building from carrying a line crediting Trump with renovating and restoring the center, and also blocks the campus from being renamed President Donald J. Trump Plaza. In his opinion, Cooper said memorials to Trump or to anyone or anything else cannot be installed at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s approval.
CBS News Miami said the board, chaired by Trump and made up of Cabinet members and allies, had approved an August resolution calling for those additions. The measure also included another inscription tied to the Trump Kennedy Center Fund if a $100 million fundraising threshold is reached.
Cooper did not issue a final ruling on that last inscription. CBS News Miami reported that he found Beatty had not shown the wording would be placed on the building imminently, if at all.
At a hearing last month, Beatty’s legal team argued that the move amounted to another direct challenge to Cooper’s earlier order. CBS News Miami noted that in that previous ruling, the judge had blocked the center’s closure and ordered Trump’s name removed from the building. The administration has appealed that decision.
At the same hearing, the Justice Department argued there was no renaming and said the proposed inscriptions were meant to honor Trump for ongoing and future fundraising efforts to supplement a $257 million congressional appropriation for a large renovation project backed by the White House, CBS News Miami reported.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
