Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, sued President Trump on Monday, seeking to force the removal of his name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Ms. Beatty’s lawsuit names as defendants Mr. Trump and the loyalists he appointed to the center’s board. The suit contends that the board’s vote to change the name last week was illegal because an act of Congress is required to rename the building.
Ms. Beatty is represented by Norman Eisen, a White House ethics counsel in the Obama administration, along with Nathaniel Zelinsky, his co-counsel of the Washington Litigation Group.
Mr. Eisen said the name change “violates the Constitution and the rule of law because Congress said this is the name. He doesn’t have a right to change the name.”
A senior White House official told The Times last week that the administration rejected that interpretation and that the White House did not anticipate Congress getting involved to override the board’s decision.
The Kennedy Center and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit on Monday.
The president’s name was added to the face of the building on Friday morning. The center’s website and various social media accounts now refer to the Trump Kennedy Center.
Ms. Beatty is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board; by law, a handful of members of Congress from both parties sit on the board.
She had called into the meeting last week at which the name change was voted on, but could not object because she had been muted. “Everything was cut off,” she recounted in an interview last week, “and then they immediately said, ‘Well, it’s unanimous. Everybody is for it.’”
In a statement on Monday, Ms. Beatty said that “only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.”
“This entire process has been a complete disgrace to this cherished institution and the people it serves,” she added. “These unlawful actions must be blocked before any further damage is done.”
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
The post Lawmaker Sues to Remove Trump’s Name From the Kennedy Center appeared first on New York Times.
