In a major win for the Trump Administration, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an order from a Federal District Court halting the removal of nine panels at The President’s House in Philadelphia. Under the ruling, the Interior Department can take down the exhibits and put in new signs with the language changed so that it fits within President Trump’s 2925 Executive Order banning historic signs that cast American history in a negative light. In January, National Park employees took down panels at Independence National Park explaining George Washington’s involvement with slavery. The signs were placed around George Washington’s home in Philadelphia where he lived during the early years of the new Republic. The Trump administration issued a statement saying it was taking down interpretive materials that contain a “corrosive ideology.”
In February, a Federal Judge issued an order to the Trump administration to restore panels taken down at the President’s House in Philadelphia that describe George Washington’s relationship with slavery and detail the lives of his nine slaves who worked for him there. The ruling by the Third Circuit reverses that order because the plaintiff does not have standing to pursue the litigation. According to the appeals court, the plaintiff, the City of Philadelphia, lacks “statutory, property, or contractual rights that empower it to curate the exhibits in the President’s House.”
Under the new policy, the National Park Service has removed 51 exhibits from 38 sites across the United States.
Later this week I will write up the court’s decision.
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