PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A federal judge in Philadelphia had strong words for a government attorney during a hearing Friday on the city’s request for an order to restore the President’s House exhibit in Independence National Historic Park.
The city presented 24 documents and three witnesses to make its case that the Park Service did not have the authority to take apart the President’s House exhibit without consulting the city because of decades of agreements, contracts and practices between the city and the park.
The government argued that the Park Service has complete jurisdiction over managing the site and can do as it wishes.
At one point, Judge Cynthia Rufe, appointed in 2002 by President George Bush, read a social media post by President Donald Trump from 2017, when Confederate statues were being removed from public spaces, that said it was sad to see history and culture being destroyed.
“You can’t change history,” she read, then asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory in den Berken if the President’s House was stripped out of a desire to change history.
She had to repeatedly ask in den Berken why the exhibit had been taken down. As far as he would go was to say it was in accordance with an executive order issued last year by Trump that ordered the removal of displays about slavery and anything critical of the United States.
She got really impatient when in den Berken argued that some people may feel positively about the exhibit, but others may not, and so the government gets to choose what gets displayed.
“This is a dangerous statement,” Rufe said, “It’s horrifying to hear it said,” and “not what we elected anyone for.”
She said that making history a “moving target,” subject to the whims of whoever’s in charge, is “a bane on our country’s existence.”
Former chief of staff to Mayor John F. Street, Joyce Wilkerson, and former chief of staff to Mayor Michael Nutter, Everett Gillison, testified about the extraordinary collaboration between the city and the National Park Service in developing the President’s House site. They said it had taken years of work and millions of dollars, and every step was overseen by a committee of city and federal officials and was subject to public review.
The original agreement to develop the site was signed in 2006. The site opened in 2010 but wasn’t finished until 2015. It was the first site in the park system to address the role of slavery in the founding of the country and was also a memorial to the nine enslaved Africans who lived in the house.
In den Berken argued that the city was essentially making a breach of contract argument, and the case should be moved to the federal claims court.
“You don’t want it here [the Eastern District] because it’s too close to the people,” he said.
Rufe said she would personally inspect the removed panels, now in storage, on Monday and asked the government to agree not to destroy any more of the exhibit until she rules on the injunction request.
Rufe did not say when she’ll rule but called it “a pressing issue, as the semiquincentennial is being planned even as we speak for that very site.”