Rep. Joyce Beatty is asking a federal judge to hold an emergency hearing over the Kennedy Center’s closure, arguing that the institution’s closing violated an existing court order.
In a motion filed Wednesday, Beatty’s attorneys said a staff member of the litigation group went to the Kennedy Center at about 10:15 a.m. and was denied entry. Security staff told the member that the building was “currently closed to the public” and that interior construction was beginning for “safety reasons.” The staff member filed a declaration detailing her experience.
Attorneys said they were concerned that the construction could make public access impossible for the foreseeable future, including potentially “demolishing public avenues of access to the building, and thereby evade the Court’s order.”
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered that the defendants respond to Beatty’s motion by 10 a.m. Thursday, adding that the court will schedule a hearing if necessary after reviewing their response.
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The Kennedy Center board received a court order on May 29 that prevented them from shutting the building down until the panel provided a closure plan that adequately explained why it would need to fully close for renovations.
The board has voted to close the center, the filing says, but the court “has not dissolved or modified its order” preventing a shutdown.
Wednesday’s closure also followed confusion over an announcement broadcast from a loudspeaker at the center Tuesday night. According to Beatty’s attorneys, the government’s legal counsel said that someone had “improperly triggered the fire alarm” and that the resulting loudspeaker sound bite announcing the closure followed the alarm. Beatty’s lawyers acknowledged in their filing that the closure announcement had been made in error.
Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi confirmed the building’s closure Wednesday morning, saying in an X post that “compounding systemic infrastructure failures from decades of neglect have left a crumbling building and safety concerns require an immediate closure of [the Kennedy Center] main building.”
Beatty’s attorneys said they contacted the defendants that morning seeking an explanation. At 11:36 a.m., the government’s counsel responded, “We will respond with an explanation as soon as we can,” according to the motion. The filing, which went up at 1:33 p.m., says the legal team had received no further response.
Beatty’s ask for a remote or in-person emergency hearing also asked for a high-level Kennedy Center decision-maker to attend.
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