Washington, United States. The Trump administration missed a court-ordered deadline to remove President Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, saying it expected to complete the work on Saturday morning. The Department of Justice cited thunderstorms and worker safety concerns in seeking more time.
Deadline extension request
In a court filing submitted before the midnight Friday deadline, the Department of Justice said thunderstorms had delayed the removal work and requested an extension until noon on Saturday.
Democratic U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who filed the lawsuit, called the request to extend the two-week-old deadline “inexcusable” and part of “a pattern of non-compliance,” according to the filing. The filing said Beatty “would strongly oppose any further extensions” to removing Trump’s name from the arts venue.
Court decisions
Hours before the filing, a federal judge in Washington declined a Justice Department request to pause the order requiring Trump’s name to be removed from the Kennedy Center.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said he would not suspend the order while a federal appeals court reviews his ruling that only Congress could rename the venue honoring the assassinated President John F. Kennedy in the nation’s capital.
The Trump administration appealed Cooper’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which also rejected the government’s request for a pause on Friday.
Response from Beatty’s attorneys
Attorneys for Beatty said in a statement that “the law is clear: only Congress can change the Kennedy Center’s name.”
“We are standing by for whatever Trump may try next, but his desperation is only making the spectacle worse for him,” said Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action, and Nathaniel Zelinsky of the Washington Litigation Group.
