Trump fights to keep his name on Kennedy Center
· Toronto Sun
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Lawyers are appealing a judge’s ruling over removing U.S. President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center building.
The legal team for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday asked the judge to freeze the order to scrub Trump’s name from the venue while the appeal plays out.
Late Thursday, the centre asked U.S. District Judge Casey Cooper to pause his ruling from two weeks ago that said the venue acted unlawfully when it added Trump’s name to the building, its website and other promotional materials, the New York Times reported.
The centre was ordered to take steps to comply with the judge’s ruling by the end of Friday and the centre has reversed the change in some places, including general counsel asking staff to remove “Trump Kennedy Center” or the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” from email signatures, social media accounts and official posts last week, as well as change the website logo, according to the publication.
However, the exterior signage remains in place as of Friday.
The centre is seeking to stop any further compliance while its appeal of the decision plays out before higher D.C. courts.
Votes for Trump
Earlier Thursday, the Kennedy Center board of trustees convened for a virtual board meeting to discuss plans to appeal Cooper’s decision, with members voting to fight the court order — namely, preserve the Trump signage — that claimed the board violated the law when it added the president’s name to the façade.
Without the stay, Trump’s legal team says the Kennedy Center will be “forced to squander time and money” on taking down signage and then putting it back up once they win.
The lawyers argue that not only would this constitute irreparable harm, but removing Trump’s name “threatens to impede the Center’s fundraising efforts and contribute to the financial decline of the Center,” according to the Times .
In their filing, the Trump team also express concerns that removing the sign and then putting it back up could be “incredibly confusing for the public,” adding that it would only be “sensible” for the court to allow the Trump signage to remain — until the appeal moves through the court.
If Cooper denies the Kennedy Center’s request, it can ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for a stay.
So unless a stay is granted, Cooper’s initial ruling stands and all the Trump branding must be gone by midnight. Without it, and if the signage remains up at midnight, the Kennedy Center, of which Trump is chairman, is in contempt of court.
Is Kennedy Center still closing for renos?
The centre was scheduled to close on July 4 for two years to undergo extensive renovations , but it is unclear if that will still happen.
The court had also voided the decision to close the Kennedy Center for the renovations and it appears that the Kennedy Center’s lawyers only appealed the name change, not the closure part of the ruling.
Last December, the Trump-selected board of trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted unanimously to add Trump’s name to the venue , officially changing the title to “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” or “Trump Kennedy Center.”
The move sparked a backlash of artists cancelling performances at the venue, and several members of the Kennedy family criticized the name change.