#beatty

#Beatty v. #Trump (25-cv-04480, District Court, D.C.) #Lawsuit over the #KennedyCenter capture, renaming, and closure.

2026/03/14

The Court will therefore order that Beatty receive certain information and documents in advance of the meeting, to the extent they exist. It further orders that Beatty be afforded a meaningful opportunity to lodge her dissent at the meeting and not be categorically barred from speaking.

2026/05/29

Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.

stripping ex officio trustees of their voting rights runs afoul of common-law trust principles incorporated into the statute

Beatty is likely to succeed on her claim that the Board violated its fiduciary duty in voting to close the Kennedy Center, “one of the more consequential decisions in the institution’s lifespan.”

The preliminary factual record before the Court reveals that, in ratifying President Trump’s closure announcement, the Board was derelict in discharging the full range of its responsibilities to the Center.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/beatty-v-trump/

#Beatty v. #Trump (25-cv-04480, District Court, D.C.) #Lawsuit over the #KennedyCenter capture, renaming, and closure. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72069932/beatty-v-trump/

51 Plaintiff's Motion for Miscellaneous Relief 2026/06/05

60 Joint Status Report 2026/06/19

New Court Order 2026/06/24:

① [Trump]'s request to stay or extend the deadline to answer Plaintiff's complaint (60, p.4) pending proceedings [in appellate court] is hereby denied. [Trump] shall answer or otherwise respond to [Beatty]'s complaint by 2026/06/29. The Court will promptly set an initial scheduling conference upon receipt of an answer, to be held following the parties' submission of a joint case management report

② [Beatty]'s 51 is hereby denied without prejudice. [Trump & co.] have represented, by sworn declaration, that they have "halted all steps to effectuate the March 16 decision to wind down programming and fully close the facility by July 5, 2026" and have committed to "maintain[ing] an operational model past July 5." If these representations do not bear out, [Beatty] may renew her motion for an order requiring proof of compliance, but the Court declines to order further sworn declarations at this time.

③ the parties are hereby ordered to file a joint status report within seven days of the mid-July Kennedy Center Board of Trustees meeting alluded to in 60, or by 2026/07/31, whichever is earlier. The joint status report shall apprise the Court of any pertinent factual developments as to plans for future construction and operations at the Kennedy Center. The report shall also indicate the purpose for and status of the tarp and scaffolding that Defendants have erected on the front portico of the Center, to the extent they remain at that time.

#Beatty v. #Trump (25-cv-04480, District Court, D.C.) #Lawsuit over the #KennedyCenter capture, renaming, and closure. As per court order, yesterday the Trump board had to "answer or otherwise respond" to Beatty's lawsuit. They gave up on additional motions to dismiss and answered. So the biggest possible takeaway is that this is likely to last a while and soon discovery can begin. You have to read the answer (Doc 61) side-by-side with the Amended Complaint (Doc 12) to understand the gap between the parties that the lawsuit needs to close. Paragraph numbers are used for citations, rather than pages, because because every word counts. 1 has the boilerplate "no response is required. To the extent a response is required, the remaining allegations are denied." which seems to say they are willing to die on the hill that Trump hadn't "announced plans to demolish the building" this summer. Bold choice! 2 similarly ignores the illegal vote. 3 admits and act violating the organic statute that created the Kennedy Center. Maybe this lawsuit could have been an email? 4 admits the Trump stooges are so bad at being fiduciaries that they don't know when or why the patrons fled. 5 puts Trump's own words on trial. 6 leans hard into "you can't tell us what the law means" but ignores that Congress and permit offices are actual real things with timelines and documents. ... 26: Admitted: President Trump also appointed himself as a general trustee and had the Board elect him as the new chair. This is unprecedented. No American president has ever appointed himself as a trustee of the Kennedy Center, let alone sought to serve as chair. ... and so on...