Judge rejects request to pause injunction ordering restoration of President’s House slavery exhibits
Park Service staff had reinstalled 16 out of 34 exhibits as of Thursday evening. The full restoration is due by 5 p.m. Friday.
A federal judge on Friday declined the federal government’s request to pause her injunction ordering that all slavery exhibits be restored to the President’s House while an appeal is ongoing.
President Donald Trump’s administration seemingly expected this ruling, as National Park Service staff began reinstalling exhibits Thursday ahead of a Friday afternoon deadline set by the judge.
Park Service staff had reinstalled 16 out of 34 exhibits as of Thursday evening.
The government argued in its request for a stay that forcing it to comply with the injunction made Philadelphia “a backseat driver holding veto power” in decisions related to Independence Hall National Park. And complying would violate the federal government‘s right to free speech because it “compels the Government to convey a message that it has chosen not to convey,” the motions said.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe rejected those arguments.
Congress and a series of agreements with the National Park Service gave Philadelphia decision-making power over the site, not the injunction, Rufe said. And while the government has a right to free speech, the injunction isn’t infringing upon it, the judge wrote.
“The government cannot claim that its speech is being compelled or silenced by this Court,” Rufe said. “Nothing in the Court’s order says it must say one thing or another concerning President Washington on or in any space or media that is in its sole domain or where it is present and allowed by permission to state its own point of view.”
Shortly after Rufe denied the stay, the federal government appealed the decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
But even a quick ruling on an emergency motion is unlikely to come before 5 p.m. on Friday, the deadline Rufe set for the full restoration of the site to its condition before the Jan. 22 abrupt removal of the exhibits.
And the government intends to comply, according to the latest appeal.
“Reinstallation efforts remain ongoing and the Government plans to file a compliance report with the district court today,” the court filing said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the city declined to comment.
Philadelphia’s lawsuit was the first in the nation challenging the removal of exhibits from national parks in accordance with Trump’s March executive order, which instructed the Interior Department to remove any content or displays that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
Advocates celebrated the return of the exhibits commemorating the nine enslaved Africans who lived in George Washington’s house in a Thursday afternoon rally.
The celebration was also met with confusion about the government’s strategy.
Michael Coard, an attorney and leader of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, which helped steer efforts to preserve the President’s House, asked why the government would put up the panels merely hours after asking the court for a stay.
“So it’s something weird going on, and we’re prepared to deal with it,” Coard said.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker also acknowledged in a Thursday statement that the fight over the exhibits was not over.
“We know that this is not the end of the legal road,” the mayor said. “We will handle all legal challenges that arise with the same rigor and gravity as we have done thus far.”
Staff writer Maggie Prosser contributed to this article.