Kennedy Center Trustee Asks Court Court to Stop Name Change and Closure

Ohio Democrat Representative and Kennedy Center Trustee Joyce Beatty implored a Washington, DC federal court on Wednesday to undo the addition of Donald Trump’s name to the center and halt its closing for renovations, arguing that the president’s handpicked board has no power to impose such changes on the center.

“The renaming is directly linked to artists canceling performances, undermining (Beatty’s) ability to maintain the Center as a performing arts space and living memorial to President Kennedy,“ a legal filing said.

Beatty argued that only Congress has the power to rename the Kennedy Center of Washington, DC because it was created and named by federal statute following the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy about three years after he was elected president. Trump’s chosen board members went beyond their authority in renaming the center and scheduling it to be shuttered for two years in coming months, Beatty told the court.

“There is no clearer or more significant breach of fiduciary duty than the Board flouting the central purpose of the institution it is charged with protecting and which Congress enshrined into law: to maintain the Center as a memorial to John F. Kennedy—and to no one else,” the filing said.

In court documents, Beatty called the addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center “unlawful” and said the decision by Trump and his supporters to close the center for renovations wasn’t based on any legitimate new report about the need for updates.

“Although President Trump claimed that the project was the culmination of a ‘one year review,’ such a review took place outside the confines of the Board’s official considerations — if it took place at all,” Beatty said in a legal filing. “And in any event, documentation underlying that supposed ‘review’ had not been made available to Plaintiff.”

Beatty serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, meaning the political office she holds automatically makes her a trustee by federal law. She sued Trump and other board members in December to undo the change in name and stop the closure.

The Kennedy Center board of Trustees, after being remade by Trump, voted in December to rename the venue as “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Not long after, Trump’s name was nailed onto the facade of the building. In February, the board elected Trump as its chair.

Roma Daravi, Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said in a statement to NPR: “We’re confident the court will uphold the board’s decision on the name change and the desperately needed renovations which will continue as scheduled.”

A slew of artist cancellations followed Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center. Rhiannon Giddens, Béla Fleck, Ben Folds, Renée Fleming, and Philadelphia rock ‘n’ rollers Low Cut Connie are among the musicians who severed ties with the center. A touring production of Hamilton was also nixed.

In an unusual turn of events, Bill Maher was reported to be receiving the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, only for the White House to call it “fake news” and say that the Real Time host won’t be getting the honor. However, this morning, Maher was once again named the Mark Twain Prize honoree in an apparent second reversal by Trump.