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U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe has given the Trump administration until 5 p.m. Friday to restore a dismantled slavery exhibit at Philadelphia’s President’s House, likening the government’s actions to the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in George Orwell’s 1984.
A federal judge has asked the Donald Trump administration to restore 34 slavery-related panels at the President's House in Philadelphia by Friday. The exhibit of nine people enslaved by George Washington at his former home on Independence Mall was removed by the National Park Service last month after Trump's executive order to "restore truth and sanity to American history."
The Trump administration had defended the move saying American monuments or memorials should "focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people."
Judge sets Friday deadline for exhibits restoration
Senior U.S. District Judge in Philadelphia Cynthia Rufe issued the order to restore the exhibits on Monday, but did not set a timeframe for it. On Wednesday, Rufe, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, set the deadline for the restoration to Friday even as the Justice Department has appealed her order.
The administration on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also based in Philadelphia. It argued that it alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service properties.
'Does not have power to disassemble history'
In her order to restore the exhibits, Rufe compared the Trump administration to the totalitarian regime in the dystopian novel “1984,” which revised historical records to align with its narrative. She said the federal government does not have the power “to dissemble and disassemble historical truths.”
“If the President’s House is left dismembered throughout this dispute, so too is the history it recounts,” Rufe wrote in the 40-page opinion. “Worse yet, the potential of having the exhibits replaced by an alternative script — a plausible assumption at this time — would be an even more permanent rejection of the site’s historical integrity, and irreparable.”
A day later, an Interior Department spokesperson said it had planned an alternative display “providing a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall."
Removal of Philadelphia slavery exhibits
On January 22, the National Park Service removed a series of exhibitions memorializing the slaves who were kept by George Washington at the first Presidential Residence during his terms in Philadelphia.
Following the removal, the City of Philadelphia sued the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service, and their respective heads, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron.
The City of Philadelphia argued that the removal of the exhibitions without its approval violated the terms of a 2006 agreement between the city and the federal government, which made it a partner in maintaining the President’s House.
English (US) ·