A federal judge in Philadelphia ordered the National Park Service not to make further changes to the President’s House Site, where George Washington lived as the head of the fledgling U.S. government, as she considers a lawsuit filed by the City of Philadelphia.
At a daylong hearing on Friday, the city argued that the Park Service was obliged to restore plaques and videos commemorating nine enslaved people who served Washington’s household on the site. Those items were removed by the Trump administration as part of a broader effort to use its control of the park system to reframe American history by eliminating materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
Judge Cynthia M. Rufe, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, expressed deep skepticism about President Trump’s effort on Friday. She called its purported legal basis “cavalier” and the prospect of further changes “frightening.”
On Monday, according to the case docket, she inspected the removed displays, which the government has said are being held in storage at the National Constitution Center. Judge Rufe’s Monday order stops short of mandating that the displays be put back up, as the city requested.
Instead, it orders “no further removal and/or destruction” of the site “until further order of the court.” That would appear to cover other parts of the memorial that include mentions of slavery and civil rights, including a stone wall with the names of nine enslaved people who served Washington’s household, and an open-air structure displaying quotes from Maya Angelou and Frederick Douglass.
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The clash over the site is happening against a backdrop of preparations for the country’s 250th birthday celebration in Philadelphia, and growing tensions in the city over Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. Some local officials have raised the possibility of Philadelphia law enforcement arresting officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. Last week, Larry Krasner, the city’s district attorney, said he would find federal agents who had broken the law “the way they hunted down Nazis for decades.”
The case before Judge Rufe turns on whether the Interior Department, which includes the Park Service, was obliged to consult with the city before removing the slavery-related materials. Those kinds of consultations took place when Independence National Historical Park was first created and during years of planning for the slavery memorial at the President’s House leading up to its 2010 dedication. The city argues that while the site is Park Service property, some portions of a decades-long series of agreements between the federal government and the city governing its operation remain in force.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the city is trying to infringe on the federal government’s right to free speech in deciding how the history of the site should be described. They also argue that the case should be transferred to a different court, the Court of Federal Claims, under an 1887 law that gives that court jurisdiction over contract disputes with the federal government.
According to internal Park Service documents reviewed by The New York Times, the administration has ordered more changes to other parts of Independence National Historical Park, including alterations to displays at the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall that address slavery and the broader struggle for civil rights by Black people.
As Judge Rufe’s order is limited to the President’s House, it does not appear to block those changes from moving forward.
Maxine Joselow contributed reporting.
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