Judge Orders Trump Admin to Share Kennedy Center Plans

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration must provide Rep. Joyce Beatty with documents related to President Donald Trump’s plan to close and extensively renovate the Kennedy Center before a key vote on Monday. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper stated that Beatty, a Democratic congresswoman and ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, has a right to the information so she can meaningfully participate in the upcoming White House meeting.

Cooper wrote that 'A project of this salience and magnitude — which threatens to involve at least some demolition and reconstruction of a major national memorial and active performing arts theater — does not happen overnight.' He added, 'If it is the case that many external advisors and Board members have been consulted, the financing is set, and already-made decisions are currently being implemented on-site, there must be some concrete information to share with the full Board, including Beatty.'

Beatty had also asked Cooper to intervene to ensure she had a right to vote during Monday’s meeting. Though Cooper agreed that the rule change 'is likely void,' he stopped short of ordering officials to permit her to cast a vote, saying she had not shown how her challenge to that change months after it occurred warranted his intervention now.

The congresswoman has also asked the judge to halt the center’s planned closure until it receives congressional approval. The renovations announced by Trump last month mark his latest effort to overhaul the center and place his mark on culture in the nation’s capital. He gutted the board and installed loyalists who elected him chair and voted in December to rename the venue the 'Trump Kennedy Center' — a move Beatty is challenging in court.

Beatty’s lawsuit includes sworn declarations from experts in performing arts center management who warn about significant impacts to bookings, donors, and staff should the two-year closure take effect. Deborah Borda, president emerita of the New York Philharmonic, said in a sworn declaration that 'the harms from a closure of the Kennedy Center at the scale and on the timeline announced are severe, immediate, and cannot be quickly reversed.'

Kennedy Center spokeswoman Roma Daravi said the center 'will abide by the court’s ruling and is happy to provide information demonstrating the need for closure and renovations.' There was no immediate response from Beatty to requests for comment on the ruling. After Cooper heard arguments Thursday, Beatty told reporters she went to court to stand up for the rule of law and democracy.

'I want to know where your money — our money — is going,' she said outside the courthouse. Beatty’s lawyer, Nathaniel Zelinsky, said the White House has engaged in a pattern of trying to stifle dissent at meetings like the one scheduled for Monday.