A federal judge hit pause on President Trump’s plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years of renovations, and ordered the center to remove Mr. Trump’s name, too.
Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee to the court in Washington, said Congress created the center and gave it the name in honor of the assassinated president, and only Congress can rename it. He threw out the name change approved last year by a board Mr. Trump hand-picked.
And Judge Cooper said plans to close the center in July for renovations must be put on hold because the board botched its decision-making. He said that doesn’t mean the board can’t take a do-over if it follows the right procedures.
He also said “sorely needed” repair work will go forward.
“By way of this opinion, the court does not purport to dictate how the center should be run, nor does it prescribe any particular plan for the institution — construction, closure, or otherwise — moving forward. It simply holds the Kennedy Center Board to certain minimum requirements imposed by law,” he wrote.
He was ruling in a lawsuit brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the center’s Board of Trustees.
She had challenged the renaming, the closure and restrictions on her ability to vote on matters before the board.
Mr. Trump carried out a takeover of the board last year, booting some trustees and naming others, including placing himself as a trustee. The board then elected him chairman and ousted the center’s president.
In December, it announced the decision to change the name to the “Trump Kennedy Center,” and had the signs at the building changed to reflect that.
Mr. Trump then announced the impending closure in February, timing the closure to July 4, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The board ratified his closure in a vote in March.
Judge Cooper’s decision Friday was a mixture of final rulings and preliminary injunctions.
Blocking the name change was one of the final rulings.
“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,” he wrote.
He also issued a final ruling finding that Ms. Beatty’s voting rights were wrongly stripped.
Halting the closure was a preliminary injunction.
Judge Cooper said the board’s decision in March ratifying Mr. Trump’s closure plans was based on “woefully insufficient” information focused solely on the condition of the building. It ignored the already scheduled programming, lost revenue and disappointed audiences.
He said the evidence suggested the board’s vote was already tainted by Mr. Trump’s closure announcement.
“The problem with this particular board vote, judging from the available record, is that it consummated a process that seems to have fallen grossly short of prudent decision-making,” Judge Cooper said.
