A fresh legal battle is taking shape over the future of the Kennedy Center in Washington, as Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, fights efforts to restore President Trump's name to the building and to close the performing arts venue for renovations.
In new filings, the Kennedy Center told a federal court that it would not attempt to return Trump's name to the facade before at least September 8. Its management said it would wait until then before adding any of the disputed wording back onto the building.
Beatty's attorneys are not satisfied with that timeline and have pressed the judge overseeing the case, Christopher Cooper, to weigh in sooner. They want a ruling by September 8, arguing there is every reason to believe the center's board will move to act at the earliest opportunity once that date passes.
At the heart of the dispute is a plan to credit the president with the building's revival. Under it, Trump's name would go back up if a fundraising target of 100 million dollars is met, the building would state that it had been endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center fund, and a separate vote would name the plaza in front the Donald J. Trump Plaza.
The renovation itself is largely to be paid for through a congressional vote last year that set aside more than 250 million dollars to repair and restore the center. According to the filing, an alternative of a four-year rotation of partial closures was considered, but a consultant warned it might hurt fundraising and damage the center's reputation, with patrons attending events at what would effectively be a construction site.
Three members of the board voted against moving forward, all of them congressional Democrats. Beatty, who objects both to the closure and to the effort to put Trump's name back on the building, has taken the matter to court, asking a federal judge to step in and prevent the management from proceeding.
For now, a tarp still covers the spot on the facade where the president's name was previously taken down. An official said it remained in place because of reported panel damage and the need for further work, but Beatty's attorneys say that explanation does not make sense and want the judge to require the center to justify why the tarp should not be ordered removed.