Topline
The Kennedy Center filed an appeal Tuesday after a federal judge ruled the arts venue could not inscribe President Donald Trump’s name on the building or name the grounds after him, shortly after the center’s board of trustees voted to close for immediate renovations.
The Kennedy Center’s board will meet Tuesday to discuss closure plans. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
Lawyers representing the Kennedy Center appealed the ruling in a filing submitted Tuesday afternoon.
The Kennedy Center board reportedly portrayed the closure move as necessary to fix what it says are structural and financial problems.
Minutes before the board meeting began, District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled the Kennedy Center could not inscribe Trump’s name on the marble facade, saying the institution “cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”
The agenda for the Kennedy Center’s Tuesday afternoon meeting was amended to focus “exclusively on the necessary closure of the Center” because of “recently exacerbated structural emergencies,” according to an email sent to trustees by vice president for board relations Joe LaFauci.
The email did not specify what structural issues the Kennedy Center is facing, but the court filing was made soon after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted a video of security camera footage that depicts a portion of the ceiling collapsing.
The resolution to close the center, which plaintiff Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, submitted to the court earlier this week, pledged to close the Kennedy Center’s main building for “immediate repair and restoration work,” while moving programming to off-site venues and the smaller Reach building on the Kennedy Center campus.
The resolution says at some point after the board’s Aug. 13 meeting, “additional water intrusion and deterioration of the Center’s physical plant” caused a partial ceiling collapse in the venue’s Grand Foyer, “endangering visitors and employees alike.”
tangent
Though the Kennedy Center board may not vote Tuesday to inscribe Trump’s name, it had circulated a resolution to trustees with 10 proposals for what the inscription might say. Some of the wording is highly flattering, including proposed text that would thank Trump for his “unwavering support” and “generosity” in fundraising for the venue. One proposal would say, “A Legacy protected through the Generosity of President Donald J. Trump.” Beatty has accused the institution of attempting to sidestep the court’s earlier ruling, which barred the venue from changing its name to the Trump-Kennedy Center.
Kennedy Center Paints Dire Portrait Of Finances
In court filings and the draft resolutions the Kennedy Center proposed for Tuesday’s meeting, the center has warned it faces “certain fiscal collapse” within the coming weeks. “President Trump has offered to step in and raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy during its much needed renovation,” the draft resolution proposing the Trump inscription reads. The Kennedy Center has argued in court that some donors will only contribute if Trump is recognized in some way. The resolution says the institution plans to “undertake all legal means to effectuate one or more of the following public recognitions or acknowledgements to the President.” In a court filing last month, the Kennedy Center’s lawyers suggested the venue may need to be torn down if Trump’s name is not added.
key background
The Kennedy Center and Beatty have been locked in a court battle over the venue’s attempt to rebrand itself with Trump’s name for months. In May, Cooper ruled the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees could not unilaterally change its name to the Trump-Kennedy Center, noting Congress has the ability to name the institution. “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote in his ruling. Beatty has argued the proposed inscription of Trump’s name would violate that order. In June, the Kennedy Center removed Trump’s name from the facade, but scaffolding and tarps have covered the sign ever since.
further reading
Kennedy Center Proposes 10 Trump Inscription Ideas—Praising His ‘Unwavering Support’ And ‘Generosity’ (Forbes)
