The Justice Department (DOJ) on Thursday defended renewed plans to inscribe President Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, insisting it does not run afoul of previous court rulings that found the change was unlawful.
A DOJ lawyer told U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper during a nearly two-hour hearing that the renowned performing arts center was in “structural and financial disarray” and the inscriptions only sought to recognize Trump’s role in helping restore it.
“We think it’s quite clear that there’s no renaming here,”Brantley Mayers said, claiming the Kennedy Center board’s decision does not violate a federal law that establishes the institution as a “living memorial” to former President John F. Kennedy Jr.
The hearing came in a challenge brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio board member who has been suing to halt the changes. The congresswoman was present in the courtroom.