A Democratic lawmaker has filed a lawsuit over the move to add President Donald Trump's name to the Kennedy Center.
According to CNN, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, filed the suit on Monday (December 21), arguing that only Congress has the power to rename or add memorial designations to the federally governed performing arts institution.
“This is a flagrant violation of the rule of law, and it flies in the face of our constitutional order,” Beatty wrote in the filing.
The lawsuit comes after the Kennedy Center's board of trustees voted last week to add Trump's name to the building. Beatty previously said she was muted during the meeting when she attempted to object. The Ohio congresswoman described the vote and the installation of new signage bearing Trump’s name the following day as “scenes more reminiscent of authoritarian regimes than the American republic.”
“Only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center,” Beatty said in a statement. “President Trump and his cronies must not be allowed to trample federal law and bypass Congress to feed his ego. These unlawful actions must be blocked before any further damage is done.”
Congress renamed the arts center in honor of President John F. Kennedy following his assassination in 1963. After 1983, federal law also required that no additional memorials or plaques “in the nature of memorials” be installed in the Kennedy Center’s public areas.
Trump has publicly defended the move to rename the building, claiming the Kennedy Center is seeing “record-setting numbers” of donors under his direction.
“We’re saving the building,” Trump said last week. “It was in such bad shape, both physically [and] financially. And now it’s very solid, very strong.”
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