Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) is challenging the “illegal renaming” of the Kennedy Center to include President Donald Trump’s moniker.
Beatty, who sits on the Kennedy Center Board, filed a lawsuit Monday against Trump and fellow board members, Mediaite reported.
After his inauguration in January, Trump appointed himself to the board for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Art.
He also added many allies to the board, who named him chairman.
Then, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week that Trump’s name would be added to the Kennedy Center.
Kennedy family members were vocal in their outrage over the name change.
A day after the announcement, Trump’s name was added to the building.
The center’s website, social media, and other digital branding changed to say “The Trump Kennedy Center.”
In her announcement, Leavitt noted the board “voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building,”
Beatty took to X and explained she had been “muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition to this move.” She also said the name change had not been on the agenda.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) were not part of the meeting and opposed the move later in media interviews.
Norm Eisen announced Monday Democracy Defenders Action and the Washington Litigation Group were representing Beatty in the lawsuit.
He added to the lawsuit the “staunch loyalists who will do his bidding, including his own White House Chief of Staff, multiple Fox News personalities, and the spouses of his Vice President and Secretary of Commerce” he appointed to the Kennedy Center board, for the “illegal renaming” of the Center.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The crux of the lawsuit is that the Kennedy Center was established and named per a 1964 law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated two months before the law was signed.
“Only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center,” Beatty said in a press release. “President Trump and his cronies must not be allowed to trample federal law and bypass Congress to feed his ego. This entire process has been a complete disgrace to this cherished institution and the people it serves. These unlawful actions must be blocked before any further damage is done.”
“The President and his sycophants have no lawful authority to rename the Kennedy Center,” said Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, Senior Counsel at Washington Litigation Group. “Congress named the Kennedy Center as a national memorial to President Kennedy, and only Congress can change that. We are proud to represent Congresswoman Beatty as she defends the integrity of this institution and the separation of powers.”
