US judge orders Kennedy Center to give 30-day notice before major changes, including demolition
A US federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to give 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolition, after President Donald Trump warned that the deteriorating performing arts complex could be “ripped down”.US District Judge Christopher Cooper said the clarification was necessary “given more recent events”, including the center’s sudden closure to the public on Wednesday, reported AP.The Kennedy Center said the shutdown was prompted by safety concerns. Executive director and chief operating officer Matt Floca said there were “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration”.The center will remain closed for at least seven days while officials assess parts of the building that have suffered severe deterioration. The decision followed a Tuesday board vote to close the complex indefinitely for repairs after an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month.The closure has become part of a wider legal and political dispute over the Kennedy Center under Trump, who became its chairman last year after his allies took control of the board.Trump and Kennedy Center linkTrump has defended efforts to renovate the ageing building, saying Wednesday that without repairs, “it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down. It’s in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape.”Congress has allocated $257 million for repairs, but Trump has said the work should proceed only alongside plans to add his name to the institution.The latest court action followed a case filed by Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and Kennedy Center trustee, who challenged the sudden closure. Her lawyers argued that describing it as temporary was “a plain pretext to justify shutting down the Center permanently”.Cooper rejected a request for an emergency hearing but clarified that his order bars demolition or other major physical changes without 30 days’ notice.The judge had previously ruled that the center’s decision to add Trump’s name was unlawful and ordered it removed. The Trump-aligned board later voted again to put his name on the facade, along with proposals to rename the plaza and add further inscriptions. Cooper blocked those plans on Tuesday, saying they could not proceed “without Congress’s blessing”.The dispute has also drawn criticism from Barbra Streisand, a 2008 Kennedy Center honoree, who described the controversy as “galling and painful to witness”.Of Trump’s effort to add his name to the center, Streisand said she was angered at seeing the institution become the subject of a “bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego”.
