A Democratic lawmaker who sits on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington sued the Trump administration Monday over the recent move to add President Donald Trump's name to the building.
Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex-officio member of the center’s board, argued that renaming the center would require an act of Congress since the original name was established through legislation that was signed into law.
The suit calls the effort to rename the center “more reminiscent of authoritarian regimes than an American Republic.”
“This is a flagrant violation of the rule of law, and it flies in the face of our constitutional order. Congress intended the Center to be a living memorial to President Kennedy—and a crown jewel of the arts for all Americans, irrespective of party,” the suit reads.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit Monday night.
The center’s board, handpicked by Trump, voted last week to change the institution’s name to the Trump-Kennedy Center. A day after the vote, Trump’s name was affixed to the center’s facade above President John F. Kennedy’s name.
The lawsuit alleges that during the meeting where the vote took place, which Beatty attended virtually, she was muted after she identified herself.
Beatty “repeatedly attempted to unmute herself,” the suit says, but “found that she was unable to do so.”
“Instead, Plaintiff received written notices that she would not be unmuted, and therefore she could not participate in the meeting. At the end of the meeting, members of the Board falsely declared that the vote had been unanimous. It is clear that nothing could or would change Defendants’ minds,” attorneys for Beatty wrote.
The Kennedy Center's board did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
Beatty is asking a federal judge to declare that the name of the center is the “John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” — its legal name — and that any vote to change the name was null and void and “without legal effect.”
Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, had told NBC News that Beatty was not a voting member of the board and was granted the “privilege” of listening into the meeting.
Members of the Kennedy family and many Democratic lawmakers publicly opposed the renaming move and questioned its legality.
It is not the first time that Trump has become intertwined with the center’s affairs. Earlier this year, he abruptly shuffled the makeup of the center’s board of trustees, which then elected him board chair. The board then changed the center’s programming, effectively canceling some Pride gatherings.
Trump had teased changing the center’s name to include his own, and GOP lawmakers had proposed renaming it after first lady Melania Trump.
