The President’s House has been in legal limbo for weeks.
Even though a Philly-based federal appeals court gave the green light to President Donald Trump’s administration to install its proposed panels to replace the slavery exhibit National Park Service staff dismantled in January, federal litigation out of Boston placed any actual changes to the site on hold.
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That obstacle was lifted Thursday by a Boston-based federal appeals court, just two days before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration, and the Trump administration wasted no time.
Hours after the ruling out of Massachusetts, Justice Department attorneys asked the Philadelphia-based Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to take the final procedural step so the National Park Service “may begin work immediately and install its new exhibits.”
The Third Circuit ruled last month that Philadelphia doesn’t have rights over the President’s House exhibit, and approved the Trump administration’s proposed panels, which historians criticized for whitewashing George Washington’s own culpability in the enslavement of nine people in his Philadelphia home.
That ruling vacated a Philadelphia federal district court judge’s February injunction that ordered the National Park Service to restore the President’s House site to its state before any panels were removed in January.
The federal government on Thursday of a procedural order that would enable it to begin installing new panels and said it hadn’t done so before because of the ongoing litigation in New England.
Still, it’s unclear when the new exhibits could be fixed to the historical site’s walls.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior did not respond to questions about when the National Park Service intended to install the new exhibit and the time the installation would require.
Instead, the spokesperson shared a statement saying the Interior Department had “encouraged Americans to visit our cultural and historic sites and engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country.”
The new panels have been manufactured, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory in den Berken said in last month’s Third Circuit hearing.
A spokesperson for Philadelphia’s Law Department said the city was reviewing its options.
The change that led to the Justice Department’s request came from the where a three-judge panel ruled the federal government does not have to reinstall before July Fourth exhibits the Trump administration had removed from national parks as part of its efforts to remove displays that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
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At least 50 exhibits were removed from more than 30 sites nationwide, .
The First Circuit previously issued an administrative stay on most ofa lower-court ruling that halted the Trump administration’s changes to the parks. Such stays are a way for anappeals court to maintain a status quo while the judges study the case.
But the new order, which stays the entire ruling, is based on the arguments and fact of the case.
The First Circuit rejected the Boston district judge‘s finding that anything but restoring the exhibits nationwide would cause irreparable harm.
The district judge’s ruling ordered the National Park Service to “undertake a burdensome reinstallation and restoration project in short order,”the First Circuit ruling said,while the conservation groups that brought the lawsuit could not show they would be harmed directly by exhibits’ absence or alterations.
The First Circuit judges assigned to the case were Chief Judge David J. Barron, appointed by Barack Obama, and Joe Biden appointees Gustavo A. Gelpí Jr. and Julie Rikelman.
The ruling is “merely a temporary procedural setback,” said Brooke Menschel, an attorney with Democracy Forward that represents the conservation groups.
“Unfortunately, for now, the decision allows the administration to continue removing and altering interpretive materials that are critical for millions of visitors to understand our nation’s history, right at the moment when so many Americans will be enjoying the parks over the upcoming semiquincentennial weekend,” Menschel said in a statement.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker vowed to “pursue every legal action possible” in an effort to reverse last month’s Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruling, which held the city has no rights over the President’s House.
So far, Parker’s administration has not taken any action. Legal experts noted that none of the administration’s options are a slam dunk.
One option would be to file an emergency stay request with the U.S. Supreme Court, which would up to conservative Justice Samuel Alito to decide.