Judge Issues Order Requiring 30-Day Notice Before Any Kennedy Center ‘Demolition’

AP Photo/Allison Robbert

Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a terse order Thursday to make it clear that his prior order prohibiting demolition or new construction at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was absolutely still in effect, and requiring 30 days’ written notice if the center’s board wished to change its plans.

The legal disputes swirling around the Kennedy Center date back to the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, when he appointed himself to the center’s board along with several of his allies, who then named him chair. The new Trump-controlled board quickly voted to change the center’s name to add the president’s name. The center’s website, social media, and other digital branding were updated to say “The Trump Kennedy Center,” and his name was added to the building’s façade.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), an ex-officio Kennedy Center board member, filed a lawsuit against Trump and his appointees to the board in late December challenging Trump’s “illegal renaming” of the center, and has continued to battle in court against other changes the Trump-controlled board had made or threatened to make. Her complaint argued that “[b]ecause Congress named the center by statute, changing the Kennedy Center’s name requires an act of Congress.” She has been represented by a legal team led by Norm Eisen, along with the organization he co-founded, Democracy Defenders Action, and the Washington Litigation Group.

Cooper has issued a series of orders ordering Trump’s name to be removed, blocking the center from closing, rejecting attempts by the Trump-controlled board to rename a plaza at the center or otherwise add his name to the building, and prohibiting any demolition or new construction.

The latest developments involved a photo taken by AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski on Wednesday of Trump through the window of Air Force One holding a large placard that read along the top “Kennedy Center DEMOLISH…” and comments by the president that further raised alarm among the center’s defenders when he declared that if he wasn’t involved with the center and given “recognition” then “it’ll end up being ripped down.”

At a hearing Thursday morning, Cooper considered motions and oral arguments from both sides regarding the alleged demolition plans and the board’s announcement it was “temporarily” closing the center.

Shortly after the conclusion of the hearing, Cooper issued a minute order (an order issued during or after a hearing, with the text entered directly into the court docket by the clerk instead of as a separate formal written order signed by the judge).

Screenshot via Court Listener.

Cooper denied Beatty’s request for an additional emergency hearing, and instead ordered the Trump board members to “file a detailed status report, supported by a sworn declaration from a knowledgeable representative of the Kennedy Center, on the ‘temporary closure’ and emergency repairs” mentioned in their latest filings, no later than Wednesday, Sept. 23.

The text of the order also included a brief lecture for the defendants that they had previously promised the court they would “inform Plaintiffs and the Court if there is any change in the Board’s plans that would constitute a reversal of the Center’s position that the building will not be demolished and that no new structure will be constructed.”

Cooper was not done scolding the defendants, as the order continued:

To avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events, the Court hereby ORDERS Defendants to provide such notice in writing to Plaintiffs in both cases more than 30 days before the implementation of any changes to the scope of the project plans presented to the Court in D.C. Preservation League, including but not limited to any “demolition” of the Center’s main building. Finally, Plaintiff may seek discovery regarding the subject of their 85 Notice of Supplemental Authority to the extent permitted by the Federal Rules and the Court’s scheduling order. SO ORDERED.

Eisen took a victory lap after the order, touting both the win and the fact that “we get discovery into this crazy demolition threat to boot!”

This article has been updated with additional information.

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