The trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts flouted the will of Congress when they renamed the institution after President Donald Trump, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled on Friday. Whatever your opinion of Trump or JFK, the decision is a useful reminder that the president, no matter what he might think, is not above the law.
The Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees, which is chaired by Trump himself and stacked with his cronies, "overstepped its statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming the Kennedy Center after President Trump," U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper concluded in Beatty v. Trump. "In 1964, Congress deliberately rechristened the 'National Cultural Center' the 'John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.' The text, structure, and evolution of the organic statute makes the institution's name abundantly clear."
