{"id":21137,"date":"2026-06-03T05:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/court-examines-philadelphias-authority-to-make-government-keep-slave-exhibits-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T05:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:39:23","slug":"court-examines-philadelphias-authority-to-make-government-keep-slave-exhibits-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/court-examines-philadelphias-authority-to-make-government-keep-slave-exhibits-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Court examines Philadelphia's authority to make government keep slave exhibits – Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court<\/a> sharply questioned lawyers for the city of Philadelphia<\/a> on Tuesday over their lawsuit seeking to restore a slavery exhibit to the President\u2019s House site in the city, which is operated by the federal government.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard arguments in a Trump administration appeal of a district court ruling<\/a> that the Department of the Interior was not permitted to remove panels at the historic site that included references to slavery. Justice Department lawyer Gregory in den Berken, arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, claimed the decision was simply curating the exhibits at the National Park Service property, and that the federal government may choose how to emphasize different aspects of history.
\u201cThe conduct \u2026 the city challenges is necessarily committed to agency discretion by law,\u201d in den Berken told the panel. \u201cThese types of curatorial decisions by the Park Service are inherently not subject to judicial review.\u201d
Anne Taylor, the lawyer arguing for the city of Philadelphia at Tuesday\u2019s hearing, faced intense questioning from the panel of judges over why the city has an interest, or an ability, to dictate the exhibits at a historic site not operated by them. One of the judges asked Taylor directly if it is the \u201ccity\u2019s position that the government can\u2019t curate its property,\u201d to which she responded that was correct.
\u201cBecause this is not an act of curation, and again, that is why I emphasize that everybody understood this to be a permanent installation, as it was designed, planned, and installed, so that is specific to the site,\u201d Taylor said.
The judge pushed back on Taylor\u2019s assertion, questioning her premise that it was a permanent exhibit that could never be modified.
\u201cI understand why the city would expect that when the president\u2019s house was erected with the exhibits and the talent that was procured and paid for to do the exhibits, including the videos,\u201d the judge questioned Taylor. \u201cI understand why the city would have an expectation that that would stay the same for a while. I\u2019m having trouble understanding why the city would have a reasonable expectation it would always stay that way.\u201d
The exhibit, titled \u201cFreedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,\u201d focused on the nine slaves who lived at the location when President George Washington lived there from 1790 to 1797 and was removed by the Trump administration in January. The exhibit had been on display since 2010 and was removed after President Donald Trump\u2019s 2025 executive action ordered that National Park Service displays be rid of exhibits that feature a \u201cfalse reconstruction of American history\u201d or which \u201cinappropriately disparages Americans past or living.\u201d
The removal prompted a lawsuit by the city of Philadelphia, which led to a federal district court order restoring the exhibits. The appeals court panel Tuesday appeared unconvinced by Taylor\u2019s assertion that the exhibits must never change, regardless of whether history changes or the exhibits become outdated, grilling her on various hypotheticals.
The panel did not say when it would issue a ruling on the Trump administration\u2019s appeal. The three-judge appeals court panel included U.S. Circuit Judges Thomas Hardiman, an appointee of former President George W. Bush; L. Felipe Restrepo, an appointee of former President Barack Obama; and Peter J. Phipps, a Trump appointee.
APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN WAR DEPARTMENT\u2019S BAN ON TRANSGENDER TROOPS<\/a><\/strong>
The Trump administration\u2019s efforts to modify federal properties have been the subject of various lawsuits, beyond the President\u2019s House in Philadelphia. At the president\u2019s current house \u2013 the White House \u2013 litigation over Trump\u2019s proposed ballroom and other renovations to the East Wing continues in federal court.
A federal appeals court has permitted construction to continue in the interim, with the appellate court set to hear arguments in the lawsuit challenging the proposed ballroom on Friday.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court sharply questioned lawyers for the city of Philadelphia on Tuesday over their lawsuit seeking to restore a slavery exhibit to the President\u2019s House site in the city, which is operated by the federal government.A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard arguments in a Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}