After speaking out that she was “muted” during a vote to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after President Donald Trump, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) is now suing Trump and his handpicked members on the board of trustees over the rebrand. She is calling for the forced removal of his name from the famed arts institution.
In a new filing on Monday, Beatty, who is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, called the renaming of the institution “unlawful” because an act of Congress is required to make the change. She argues that the Trump loyalists on the board instead committed a “flagrant violation of the rule of law,” and it “flies in the face of our constitutional order.”
The Ohio Democrat pushed back on the president last week after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that the decision to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump was a “unanimous” one by the board. In fact, she said she was “muted” when she tried to speak during the vote, which she attended remotely.
“Be clear: I was on that call,” she said in a video post on X. “As I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions, and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted. Participants who were online were not allowed to voice their concerns, yet it was said at the end that it was a unanimous vote.”
President Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center building on Friday. The Kennedy Center’s Vice President of Public Relations, Roma Daravi, also echoed Leavitt’s comments about the decision.
“The new Trump Kennedy Center reflects the unequivocal bipartisan support for America’s cultural center for generations to come,” Daravi said.
The incident of the vote is mentioned in the lawsuit, in which Beatty calls the event a “thinly-veiled sham.”
“When the Congresswoman tried to speak in opposition to the name change, she was muted,” the filing reads. “This was a transparent effort to prevent any disagreement with the Board’s actions and indicates that nothing could, or will, ever change Defendant’s minds. The proceedings were mere window dressing for a predetermined decision.”
Beatty is being represented by Norman Eisen, founder of Democracy Defenders Action and former White House ethics counsel in the Obama administration, and Nathaniel Zelensky of Washington Litigation Group. The lawsuit argues that there will be financial implications and “reputational harms” from the decision of the board, which has been shown through protests from artists canceling their performances and art patrons not deciding to not buy tickets.
“There is every reason to expect this trend will continue, with associated financial and reputational harms,” the lawsuit stated.
