U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, has ruled that President Donald Trump’s name cannot be added to the Kennedy Center without an act of Congress. The judge ordered the removal of all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and the elimination of any references to a “Trump-Kennedy Center” from official materials.
In his ruling, Judge Cooper stated that the Kennedy Center’s organic statute designates it for President Kennedy alone. He found that the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees overstepped its “statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming” the building.
“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. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
The decision follows a December vote by Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center Board of Trustees that unanimously renamed the performing arts center as “The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
