Appeals Court Rejects Emergency Request to Halt Removal of Trump's Name from Kennedy Center
A Washington D.C. appeals court denied an emergency appeal by Donald Trump’s legal team to pause a district judge’s order removing his name from the Kennedy Center’s façade.
A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. refused on Friday to grant an emergency stay sought by Justice Department lawyers representing former President Donald Trump and members of the Kennedy Center board. The request aimed to suspend a district-court order that required the removal of Trump’s name from the exterior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had earlier denied a last-minute bid by the center to keep the name on the building, ruling that the designation had been added illegally and that only Congress could change the center’s name. Cooper gave the institution two weeks to eliminate references to “Trump” from signage, documents and branding.
The Kennedy Center complied with the order, removing the name from its website and updating communications to reflect the original title. The court’s denial leaves the removal schedule unchanged, and workers are expected to proceed with the work once weather permits.
The legal dispute originated from a challenge filed by Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio board member, who argued that the name change violated statutory requirements. Beatty also opposed the emergency appeal.
The decision does not affect the center’s planned $257 million revitalization project, which had been temporarily blocked by the judge’s order.
"Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it," Cooper wrote in his opinion.
The ruling underscores the judiciary’s stance that the naming of the federally funded performing-arts venue remains a congressional matter.
