Attorneys for Kennedy Center ex-officio board member Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, are requesting an emergency hearing after the center was closed to the public late yesterday.
The lawyers representing Beatty, who has been pushing back against Trump’s plan to close the center for two years while it undergoes repairs, argued that the center’s legal team initially informed them that it had shut down yesterday due to a faulty fire alarm.
In a court filing today, Beatty’s attorneys stated that not only is the center closed, but gates have been erected outside and construction is now taking place inside – actions they believe violate a previous court order regarding the case. That order prevented an earlier attempt to close the center without approval from the judge.
Rep. Joyce Beatty speaks to a crowd as workers set up scaffolding before removing Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center on June 12. Craig Hudson for The Washington Post / Getty Images file
“Given the unexplained and unlawful closure, it is possible Defendants intend to undertake immediate steps in order to make public access practically impossible for the foreseeable future, including by demolishing public avenues of access to the building, and thereby evade the Court’s order by fait accompli,” attorney Nathaniel Zelinsky writes in the filing.
U. S. District Judge Christopher Cooper gave the government until 10 a. m. ET tomorrow to respond. “The Court will schedule a prompt hearing if necessary after reviewing the response,” he added.
The board voted yesterday to immediately close down the center.
Cooper ruled in late May that a March vote to shut down the center was taken “without a meaningful effort to confirm the wisdom of a recommendation that could adversely affect the Center in numerous ways for years to come.”
He stated that any plan couldn’t proceed “until the Board approves any closure consistent with the Court’s Memorandum Opinion, and the Court issues a further Order dissolving or modifying this preliminary injunction.”
Beatty’s filing indicated that at a hearing yesterday prior to this vote, the judge reaffirmed this position, and it now “seems Defendants may be violating the ‘clear and unambiguous order of the Court.’”
The Trump administration is expected to argue they aren’t violating any orders since they view yesterday’s board vote as separate from March’s decision.
Cooper dismissed similar arguments in his ruling yesterday concerning an updated attempt bythe boardto add its chairman’s name – President Trump – ontothe building’s facade, findingthatitwas using“linguistic gymnastics”to tryto sidestep his ruling.
Despite being closed, theboardmentionedthat someprogrammingwillcontinueinside aseparate, newer, and muchsmallerbuildingonthe Kennedy Center’s campus. Therearefreeeventsscheduledbetween Thursdayand Sundayeachweekoveratthatbuildingcalled“The REACH.”
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