The judge determined that Congress had named the center in JFK’s honor and hence that only Congress can change the name.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ruled that President Trump and the board of trustees he installed may not rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as the “Trump Kennedy Center,” reasoning that Congress named the center in President Kennedy’s honor shortly after his 1963 assassination, expressly directing that the center be dedicated to the late president’s memory.
Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee to the D.C. District Court, reasoned that only Congress may alter what Congress has done in the controlling statute. See Section 76h of Title 20, U.S. Code (establishing “the Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” the center itself bearing that name, and the board’s duties to maintain and administer the center as, among other things, “a living memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy”).
In addition, Judge Cooper ruled that the board (to which Trump has named himself) likely violated its fiduciary duty in voting to close the Kennedy Center for two years; on that score, the court concluded that the board had based its decision on “an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information,” and had failed to consider the full range of its statutory duties, which include operating it as a performing arts venue and as a memorial to JFK, in addition to maintaining it in good working order.
Cooper issued his 94-page memorandum opinion on Friday, granting preliminary relief and a partial summary judgment in favor of Representative Joyce Beatty (D., Ohio), an ex officio member of the board of trustees, finding she was likely to succeed on the merits of her claims. The court found that, under both the statute and common-law trust principles, the board lacked authority to strip ex officio members of voting rights, as it undertook to do last year by amending the center’s bylaws.
Roma Daravi, a spokeswoman for the center, told the New York Times that the center would appeal, expressing confidence that a superior court “will uphold the board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.”