US Federal Judge Orders Reinstallation of Information Panels in National Parks

Judge's Reasoning

Judge Kelley justified her decision in clear terms. She stated that the government's approach set a dangerous precedent of censorship. Specifically, she said: "Geschichte kann nicht wahrheitsgetreu erzählt werden, wenn die Erfahrungen von Gemeinschaften ausgeschlossen werden, deren Beiträge, Kämpfe und Errungenschaften einen wichtigen Teil der Geschichte unserer Nation bilden". The government had "schlichtweg Halbwahrheiten verbreitet, indem sie Material entfernt habe, das nicht in ihr bevorzugtes Narrativ passe", Kelley stated verbatim.

Among the specifically affected materials were information panels on climate risks in South Carolina as well as an exhibition on the slaveholding practices of the first US president, George Washington, in Philadelphia. The plaintiffs were associations from the fields of history, conservation, and science that had sued over the removals. Environmental organizations and historians also supported the case.

Background: The Executive Order

The basis for the removals was an executive order signed by Trump in March 2025. It was directed against what Trump called a "revisionist movement" that portrayed the USA as fundamentally racist or oppressive. The order was implemented by the Department of the Interior under Secretary Doug Burgum.

Dispute Over the Kennedy Center

In parallel, a second case was underway over the renaming of the Kennedy Center. The board of the cultural center, chaired by Trump, had decided in December 2025 to rename the Washington building "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts." Workers had already begun affixing Trump's name to the facade the day after that decision.

At the end of May, a US district judge had already ruled that only the US Congress had the authority to rename the cultural center. The Trump administration appealed that decision, which is currently being reviewed by a federal appeals court. A prior emergency motion by the Kennedy Center's board against the removal of the lettering had previously been denied.

The US Department of Justice had announced that it would be unable to meet the court-ordered deadline to remove Trump's name by 11:59 p.m. on Friday due to thunderstorms in Washington. Ultimately, workers in the early morning hours of Saturday began removing the Donald Trump lettering from the Kennedy Center building — less than six months after it had been installed.

Government's Reaction

The Department of the Interior reacted sharply to Kelley's decision, calling the judge a "leftist activist judge." The department announced it would consider legal remedies against the ruling. This sets the stage for further litigation over the government's handling of historical and climatological information in American national parks.

The Kennedy Center was opened in 1971 as a memorial to Democrat John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. Trump had stacked the center's board with political allies since taking office. The struggle over the name and the historical framing in the parks is regarded by observers as a litmus test for the government's treatment of history and science in public institutions.