Judge temporarily halts Kennedy Center closure and orders removal of Trump’s name from building

Trump then appeared to wash his hands of the renovation and renaming efforts by announcing his administration would move to put Congress in control of the center.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from closing the Kennedy Center for repairs and ordered the removal of President Donald Trump’s name from the building and its website.

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U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Friday that Trump’s handpicked board did not have the authority to rename the facility on its own.

“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” the judge wrote in his 94-page decision, issued on Kennedy’s birthday. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”