Judges Reject Effort To Reinstate Trump’s Name To Kennedy Center As Its Board Pursues Appeal

A federal appeals court has rejected the Kennedy Center board’s latest argument for why Donald Trump‘s name needs to be added to the complex.

A three-judge panel on Wednesday denied a stay of a lower court order that forced the Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name, including from the facade of the front of the arts institution. A tarp has covered the name since then, which otherwise would read visibly, “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Justice Department attorneys had argued that many “donors and companies, who have given, or will be giving, millions of dollars to the Center were only willing to do so with the name ‘Trump’ on the Building.” They noted that a new entity, the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, hinged on having Trump’s name on the facade and that, according to the foundation bylaws, the funds would have to be returned.

“A stay should therefore be issued to protect the center from financial ruin,” the DOJ attorneys wrote.

But appellate judges wrote that the Kennedy Center board “have failed to support this assertion with any specific facts or evidence. They offer only the conclusory assertions of the Kennedy Center’s Executive Director that were made in a factually unsupported declaration.”

When it comes to the foundation’s hindrance to fundraising, the judges wrote that the center “never raised that factual contention in district court, and they have given no explanation for failing to do so. Such a post hoc argument cannot demonstrate an abuse of discretion by the district court.”

The judges also noted that Trump’s name already has been removed, and “a stay would not avert those harms (even assuming they would qualify as irreparable).”

The center’s board voted in December to add Trump’s name to the complex. But one of its ex officio members, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), challenged the renaming in a federal lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in May ruled that the board lacked authority to do so, noting that Congress designated the center for Kennedy in 1964, a year after his assassination.

The center, which is controlled by Trump and his hand-picked board members, appealed Cooper’s decision. The appeals court has yet to consider the broader arguments, and its decision on Wednesday was only on whether to grant the stay in the interim.

Also pending is the appeal of Cooper’s decision that the center’s board failed to consider the full scope of impacts from a planned closure after July 4 for renovations. The board is to meet later this month on potential options.

More to come.