Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts cannot legally add President Donald Trump’s name to the center.
Beatty serves as an ex-officio member of the board and has said she was “muted” during the board’s vote to change the name on a video call earlier this month. Her lawsuit states that only Congress has the power to change the name.
“The Board’s purported renaming of the Kennedy Center violates federal law,” Beatty said in the lawsuit, which she filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “By statute, Congress has named the center as ‘the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.’ Under our constitutional system, only Congress can modify a statute, and Congress must do so by enacting a new statute.”
“This Court’s intervention is urgently needed,” Beatty added. “The renaming of the Kennedy Center will cause severe harm to this landmark institution, which is already struggling.”
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Among the defendants in the lawsuit are Trump and Kennedy Center interim Executive Director Richard Grenell. The suit follows the White House’s announcement Thursday that the Kennedy Center’s board had voted to add Trump’s name to the building. Workers were photographed Friday adding “The Donald J. Trump” on the exterior of the building above the center’s existing name.
Roma Daravi, a Kennedy Center spokesperson, said in a statement that “the Kennedy Memorial is not impacted at all” by the name change. Daravi added that all board members were “invited to attend in person and the privilege of listening in on the meeting…even those without a vote, such as ex-officio member Joyce Beatty.”
“Trump raised over $131 million in private and corporate donations and had Congress give $257 million for critical infrastructure needs, all to SAVE this institution,” Daravi said, reiterating a previous statement. “There was over $250 million of deferred maintenance repairs immediately needed.”
“Those individuals attacking now sat idly by while America’s cultural center slowly crumbled. Now the bipartisan Trump Kennedy Center is here for generations to come,” Daravi continued.
And Liz Huston, a White House assistant press secretary, said in a statement that Trump “saved the old Kennedy Center,” and that the renaming was “a historic move that marks a new era of success, prestige, and restored grandeur for one of America’s most iconic cultural institutions.”
Beatty has been among the most vocal about her opposition to the name change.
“What you may hear is that there was a unanimous vote to rename the Kennedy Center the Trump Center. [To] be clear, I was on that call, and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions, and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted,” Beatty said in a video posted to her social media last Thursday. “Each time I tried to speak, I was muted.”
Other Democrats have joined in the disapproval of the change, but the dissent isn’t limited to elected officials.
NOTUS was first to report that several artists set to perform at the Kennedy Center were angry and frustrated over the name change, disappointed over the politicization of a center that, despite being a memorial to a president, has largely remained focused on the arts over the years. A spokesperson for musician Kristy Lee, for example, told NOTUS Friday that she was planning to cancel her Jan. 14 show at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.
“I believe in the power of truth, and I believe in the power of people,” Lee said about her cancellation in a statement on social media Monday. “And I’m gonna stand on that side forever. I won’t lie to you, canceling shows hurts. This is how I keep the lights on. But losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.”
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Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with comment from the Kennedy Center and the White House.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and Signal Ohio.
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