A federal judge ordered the Trump administration over the weekend to allow Rep. Joyce Beatty to attend a meeting of the Kennedy Center board, at which the panel is expected to finalize construction plans for the storied arts institution.
The ruling is a partial win for the Ohio Democrat, who is an ex officio member of the board and is not granted voting rights. Beatty had requested that the court grant her a vote at the upcoming meeting, but was rebuffed on that front by District Judge Christopher Cooper, who wrote that the matter was “not clearcut.”
“I serve on the Board on behalf of my colleagues in Congress and the American people, and I take that responsibility seriously,” Beatty said in a Saturday statement. “No president has the authority to shut Congress out of the governance of the Kennedy Center, much less unilaterally rename or demolish it.”
“We will not stand by while an important part of our national heritage is jeopardized, and I intend to make that clear at next week’s board meeting,” she added.
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On Monday, the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees will meet to finalize President Donald Trump’s construction plans, which are set to close the venue for an estimated two years. Trump effectively asserted control over the institution last year by firing the majority of its board and replacing them with allies.
During the board’s closed-door vote in December to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump, Beatty said her microphone was muted while she attempted to voice her dissent. The Trump administration announced the renaming as a unanimous decision.
Beatty filed litigation in December against the renaming, later adding Trump’s renovation plans to her lawsuit in an attempt to halt any construction while her initial lawsuit is ongoing. Last week, Beatty told the court she had not been invited to the Center’s Monday meeting but later amended her filing to admit that the invite had been sitting in her spam folder.
Beatty had asked the court to allow her to attend Monday’s meeting and grant her a vote and access to all material related to the renovation plans.
Her requests were partially granted on Saturday.
“Rarely should a trustee, in any setting, be denied all material information and any opportunity to voice her dissent on a vote as consequential as one to close and potentially rebuild the trust’s sole piece of real estate,” Judge Cooper wrote in a 37-page ruling.
While granting her requests for relevant information and the ability to voice dissent, Cooper did not grant Beatty the power to vote.
“While her statutory arguments are persuasive, the question whether the statute provides a right to vote is not clearcut, and the irreparable harm and balance of the equities persuade the Court to stay its hand, for now,” Cooper wrote.
The White House told NOTUS in early February that renovation plans for the Kennedy Center would primarily focus on “building maintenance” to bring the building into “current life-safety codes,” which would include improvements to the building’s parking structure and structural work involving heating, ventilation and air conditioning, plumbing and electrical systems and technical stage equipment.
The project will also repair and replace elements of the building’s exterior “to ensure the long-term preservation and integrity of the structure,” the official told NOTUS.
“I’m not ripping it down. I’ll be using the steel,” Trump told reporters in February.
Trump posted renderings seemingly produced with artificial intelligence to Truth Social on Friday, but exact details of the plans are still unclear.
“John F. Kennedy would have done a very good job hosting,” Trump said during the Kennedy Center Honors event in December. “But building, no … I build better than anybody.”
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