Judge blocks closure of Kennedy Center, says board can’t add Trump’s name

Washington — A federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center from temporarily closing its doors during proposed renovations, and ruled that the institution’s board acted unlawfully when it added President Trump’s name to the building.

In a 94-page opinion on Friday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in favor of Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a member of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, who filed a lawsuit challenging the institution’s name change and plans to close for two years for extensive repairs beginning this summer.

“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. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” wrote Cooper, who was named to the bench by President Barack Obama.

Referring to the impending closure, the judge said that “in ratifying President Trump’s closure announcement, the Board was derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center.”

“More specifically, the Board based its decision on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions,” Cooper wrote.

The judge also ruled that the board had “overstepped” its authority by stripping Beatty, an ex officio member through her role in Congress, of her right to vote at a March meeting where the board approved the plan to close the center after this summer’s July 4 celebrations. 

Earlier this year, Cooper ruled that Beatty was entitled to participate in the meeting, but did not require that the board allow her to vote.

In his Friday ruling, however, Cooper said that planned repair work can continue, saying the evidence put forward in the case indicates it is “sorely needed.” He also said his preliminary injunction does not “categorically” bar the board from closing the Kennedy Center “should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion.”

In a separate decision on Friday, Cooper denied a similar legal challenge brought by the D.C. Preservation League.

Mr. Trump moved to put his mark on the Kennedy Center in the opening weeks of his second term. The president replaced several members of the center’s Board of Trustees with senior members of his administration and close allies, who then elected Mr. Trump chair.

The board also moved to oust its longtime president, and installed Ric Grenell, who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany in the first Trump administration, as its new leader. Grenell left his post helming the Kennedy Center earlier this year and was replaced by Matt Floca, the institution’s former vice president of operations.

In December, the Kennedy Center’s board voted to change the performing arts institution’s name to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

The changes were instituted swiftly. Hours after the board’s vote, the Kennedy Center’s website was updated to read “The Trump Kennedy Center” and crews went to work adding Mr. Trump’s name to the building’s facade. But lawmakers and legal scholars said such a change required action by Congress.