Judge Mulls Lawmaker’s Bid to Vote on Kennedy Center Closure

A Democratic lawmaker urged a Washington federal judge to allow her to vote and review materials in advance on Donald Trump’s plans to close the Kennedy Center, days before the president’s handpicked board is expected to vote on the issue.

Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper of the US District Court for the District of Columbia considered a request by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) at a Thursday hearing to participate in a March 16 board meeting for the decades-old center, which Trump renamed for himself last year and says he plans to renovate.

Beatty, who attended the hearing, is an ex-officio board member as a member of Congress, which created the performing arts center as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy after his assassination.

Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, Beatty’s attorney, argued at the hearing that the Kennedy Center doesn’t have the authority to strip her voting rights, after the board changed its bylaws last year to bar voting by ex-officio members.

And it’s “gobsmacking” that board members would be voting on the same day as the presentation for “something of this magnitude,” and hadn’t received materials to review ahead of time, he said.

“It’s breathtaking that the government has provided the board nothing,” Zelinsky told the judge.

The hearing was held over a month after Trump announced on TruthSocial that the Kennedy Center would close on July 4, 2026, “whereupon we will simultaneously begin Construction of the new and spectacular Entertainment Complex.”

The announcement followed declining ticket sales and multiple artists canceling scheduled performances after the renaming.

William Jankowski of the Justice Department argued in court that Beatty had asked for “extraordinary relief” that isn’t available to her. He told the court that Beatty would be permitted to attend the meeting, but would not be allowed to vote, and would have a chance to review materials at the meeting itself.

“A major renovation of the nation’s premier performing arts center would strike me as something that someone would need some advance materials on,” Cooper, an Obama appointee, told Jankowski.

Cooper also questioned the government’s explanation that materials weren’t finalized enough to be provided ahead of time, after Jankowski told him that the information “may not be accurate” yet.

“It’s 4 o’clock on a Thursday afternoon. This meeting is on Monday,” Cooper said. “Why not just give this material to all the trustees?”

Still, Cooper appeared somewhat swayed by the government’s argument that Congress would’ve explicitly barred the Kennedy Center’s board from making decisions about member voting powers, if it had wanted to.

“Your honor, we’re on the same page,” Jankowski told the judge, after Cooper summarized the government’s position to him.

“Well, maybe,” Cooper replied.

Legal Challenge

Beatty sued the administration and Kennedy Center in December, days after Trump’s board voted to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The new name was installed on the building the next day.

Beatty argued in her lawsuit that only Congress has the power to change the Kennedy Center’s name and that center is “willfully flouting the law to satisfy Defendant Trump’s vanity.” She also claimed that she was muted when she tried to speak against the name change during the December board meeting.

Earlier this month, Beatty updated her lawsuit and asked Cooper to block the administration from closing the center this summer. Cooper has yet to hold a hearing on that request.

Beatty also initially alleged she wasn’t invited to the March 16 meeting, but her chief of staff said in Wednesday court declaration that she later discovered the invitation in the spam folder of her personal email.

Beatty told reporters outside the courthouse Thursday that the hearing was about “making sure that I am representing the people that I was sent there to represent as a member of Congress, as a board member.”

“I am hopeful that I will be able to go in and take my seat at the board meeting. I am hopeful that I will be able to express myself based on the information that I hear then or that I receive before, but I will be vocal,” she said.

The Kennedy Center litigation is one of several lawsuits lodged against the Trump administration over planned or ongoing renovations to historic buildings in Washington.

Trump was also sued last year by a historic preservation nonprofit over his decision to demolish the White House’s East Wing to construct a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. A Washington federal judge initially declined to block the project last month, but he invited the nonprofit to update their litigation. A hearing on that renewed effort is scheduled for March 17.

Preservationists have also sued the administration over Trump’s stated plans to paint the granite exterior of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a 19th-century building that now houses offices for White House staff.

The case is Beatty v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-04480, hearing held 3/12/26.