A federal judge is — once again — weighing a bid to remove President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center, something a lawyer for the congresswoman who brought the lawsuit called “deja vu.”

In an emergency hearing Thursday, the plaintiffs sought an order from the judge that would temporarily block the government from going forward with a proposed resolution from the Kennedy Center Board. That resolution, plaintiffs say, flew in the face of a May court ruling.

Lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, who brought the legal challenge, argued that U.S. District Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper had already decided the issue when he ruled in May that Trump had illegally added his name to the building. 

But in July, despite that ruling, the Kennedy Center Board voted to add underneath the center’s name an inscription that would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” and “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” The board also voted to rename the center’s grounds in honor of Trump.

Nathaniel Zelinsky, Beatty’s lawyer, said Thursday that the government’s argument that only the plaza and other elements of the renovation would be named after Trump was misleading, and that is not how he was interpreting the government’s argument. 

“I read them saying, the whole thing is named for President Trump,” Zelinsky said. 

Cooper ultimately agreed with the plaintiffs that the issue requires more information to have a better understanding of how the Kennedy Center Board came to its Aug. 13 resolution. The judge said he would issue a minute order that outlines instructions for discovery, and he urged the government to extend the board’s Sept. 8 deadline for the beginning of renovations.  

“What’s magic about that date?” Cooper asked, adding that the rushed deadline was preventing a “more civilized timeline” for briefing in the matter and causing both parties to work over Labor Day weekend. 

Cooper pointed out that the Sept. 8 deadline gave the impression that the board had already hired contractors and purchased new lettering to restore Trump’s name. 

The government’s lawyer, Brantley Mayers, did not respond to the deadline question but maintained that the Kennedy Center is in need of renovations, saying there is undisputed evidence that the building is “dilapidated.”

“I can’t imagine a more stark case that cries out for relief,” Zelinsky said, adding that the marble on the building had already been damaged from the first time Trump’s name was put on the building. 

In May, Cooper blocked Trump’s effort to change the Kennedy Center’s name to include his own and ordered its removal. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” he wrote in the ruling. 

Last week, Beatty called the vote to add Trump’s name back to the building a “breathtaking act of defiance.”

“This latest move is a transparent effort to rename the Center in President Trump’s honor, and at a minimum constitutes an unlawful attempt to memorialize President Trump by returning his name to the portico and grounds where this court held it does not belong,” the congresswoman said in a court filing.  

The government responded by arguing the center desperately needs the planned $250 million renovation project. It emphasized that Trump’s efforts are driving that renovation effort, so an inscription of his name would be appropriate.  

“Without those efforts, the center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years,” the government said in the filing. “Such a replacement will fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy.”

Beatty also responded to a suggestion that the government might raze the building, saying it appeared to be a threat should the court block it from returning Trump’s name to the building.

“In plain English, Defendants have not-so-subtly said: ‘What a nice Kennedy Center you have here. What a shame should something happen to it,’” the congresswoman said in a filing. “This is a breathtaking assault on the rule of law. It’s delusional. And it must stop.”

Cooper did not rule on Beatty’s request Thursday but urged the government to reconsider the Sept. 8 deadline.

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