Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Middle, as seen from the Washington Monument, on Aug. 10.
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A superior court docket choose in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Kennedy Middle to pay greater than $250,000 to a jazz musician who final December canceled the annual Christmas Eve efficiency he had hosted there for almost 20 years. Chuck Redd, a vibraphonist and drummer, determined to cancel the live performance after President Trump’s title was added to the facade of the humanities heart that month.
After Redd canceled the efficiency, the Kennedy Middle vowed to sue Redd for $1 million in damages. In June, Choose Tanya M. Jones Bosier dismissed the middle’s breach of contract swimsuit towards Redd, granting his movement to dismiss the case underneath the district’s anti-SLAPP statute, a regulation designed to guard public curiosity speech.
In her ruling Monday, the choose decreed that the Kennedy Middle should pay Redd $252,479.70 to cowl attorneys’ charges and different authorized prices.
The Kennedy Middle in a press release mentioned it meant to enchantment.
In a press release emailed to NPR on Tuesday, one in every of Redd’s attorneys, Lisa J. Banks, mentioned the ruling was applicable, including: “No citizen ought to should spend money and time heading off baseless and politically motivated lawsuits filed by the Trump Administration.”
In June, the middle eliminated the president’s title from the complicated’s facade, following a federal court docket ruling. Trump, who ousted the Kennedy Middle’s earlier president, board chair and board members in February 2025 and changed them with shut allies and supporters, stays chairman.
The way forward for the Kennedy Middle is nonetheless unsure, as most of its public programming and academic actions stay suspended.Trump had introduced that he deliberate to shut the complicated as of July 5 for 2 years of intensive renovations, however the Federal District Court docket in Washington has ordered an replace from the complicated’s administration on its plans concerning building, programming, and public entry.
The choose in that case, Christopher R. Cooper, had granted the board time to analysis and vote on these plans. Its board is slated to fulfill this month to vote on a plan going ahead, however final week The Washington Publish reported that Democratic lawmakers on the middle’s board, together with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), had but to obtain any up to date assessments or plans to evaluate previous to the assembly. NPR has reached out to Sen. Whitehouse’s workplace for present remark, however didn’t obtain an instantaneous reply.
