Kennedy Center Main Building Shuts Down Over Safety Risks as Obama-Appointed Judge Demands Answers
The Kennedy Center’s main building is closed to the public, with fencing and construction barriers surrounding the Potomac River complex. Officials say the structure faces imminent life-safety risks. But the emergency shutdown has immediately collided with a federal court order tied to the fight over President Donald Trump’s plans to rebuild the landmark.
On Wednesday, Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the Trump administration to tell the court by 10 a.m. Thursday whether the closure violates his earlier injunction. Cooper said he would schedule a hearing if he decides one is necessary, according to the Washington Post.
The order came after Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty’s lawyers filed an emergency motion. Her legal team includes Norm Eisen, a veteran Trump antagonist. The motion argued that the Kennedy Center board’s Tuesday vote to close the main building “may be violating the ‘clear and unambiguous order of the Court.’”
Beatty’s team even sent a staffer to the center’s doors Wednesday morning. The staffer was told the building was closed.
This is the latest turn in a months-long legal fight. In May, Cooper blocked a two-year closure that the board had already approved. He also ordered Trump’s name removed from the marble facade and accused the trustees of acting in a “derelict” and “seemingly preordained” way.
Cooper, who was nominated by Barack Obama, ruled that only Congress can change the statutory name Congress gave the living memorial to John F. Kennedy in 1964. At the same time, he left the board a narrow path forward. It could return with a more “prudent” closure plan and ask him to modify the injunction.
The board did exactly that—twice. On August 13, after receiving more than 160 pages of engineering and cost analysis, trustees again voted to close the main building for roughly two years. They also approved language stating that the center had been “Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” Cooper rejected that inscription on Tuesday.
Hours later, the board voted almost unanimously to shut the building immediately. Officials cited structural danger and a recent ceiling failure. After storms, a section of plaster in the Grand Foyer fell roughly 60 feet onto an unoccupied floor. No one was hurt. The center called it another warning that could not be ignored after decades of deferred maintenance.
Consultants told the board that a full two-year closure would be faster and cheaper than a four-year partial shutdown. The longer option would cost more than twice as much while leaving large parts of the building dark anyway. Congress has already put more than $250 million into the project through the president’s spending package.
Trump has made the same case since taking over as board chair: the center has rotting systems, unsafe conditions, and a building that needs to be closed, repaired properly, and reopened as a world-class hall instead of being patched around paying audiences for years.
Trump addressed Tuesday’s vote on Truth Social:
The Board of The Kennedy Center today agreed, almost unanimously, to close the Building for Safety reasons, and so that it can begin the process of Reconstruction. The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name. If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.
Trump also noted that $17 million he helped raise is sitting in the center’s account to keep operations afloat while the court fight continues. A D.C. Circuit panel has already refused to stay Cooper’s order removing the president’s name from the building.
Beatty, an Ohio Democrat, sits on the board because of her House seat and has been the face of the lawsuit from the beginning. Her lawyers now argue that even an emergency safety shutdown is illegal unless Cooper first lifts his May injunction. They also want a senior Kennedy Center official brought into court.
Eisen’s position was blunt: “no one — including the president — is above the law.” The immediate dispute is now whether that injunction can block a closure that Kennedy Center officials say is necessary to address serious safety problems.
Source: The Gateway Pundit