Rep. Joyce Beatty argues that without an act of Congress, the Kennedy Center’s board does not have the power to add the sitting president’s name to the institution.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2025/12/23/trump-kennedy-center-beatty-lawsuit
A Democratic congresswoman sued the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees Monday to stop it from adding the president’s name to the institution, arguing that only Congress has the power to do so.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board, claimed that a vote by the board last week to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” exceeded its statutory authority and requested that a judge declare it to be void. Beatty had called into the meeting but was muted when she tried to speak out about the name change, the lawsuit says. The Washington Post reported on the incident last week.
“Because Congress named the center by statute, changing the Kennedy Center’s name requires an act of Congress,” the lawsuit says, adding that “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.”.....
Attaching a sitting president’s name breaks with conventions for U.S. presidential memorials. (“The Kennedy Memorial is not impacted at all,” Daravi said.)
The lawsuit, which was filed by Democracy Defenders Action and the Washington Litigation Group on behalf of Beatty, requested that a judge order all physical and digital branding changes to be reversed. Trump had acted surprised about the change, but his name was added to the center’s website and the exterior of the building within 24 hours.
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