DOJ Floats Razing Kennedy Center; Judge Hears Today

Justice Department attorney Brantley Mayers wrote that without the administration's renovation efforts, "the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down." Mayers floated "a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River" as a replacement, conceding it would "fail to adequately honor" Kennedy.

Beatty's lawyers answered: "In plain English, Defendants have not-so-subtly said: 'What a nice Kennedy Center you have here. What a shame should something happen to it.' This is a breathtaking assault on the rule of law. It is delusional. And it must stop."

The reply accuses the board of a "slavish attempt to corrupt the Kennedy Center at all costs" and of playing "a dangerous game of chicken with the law," adding that the destruction of "a sacred memorial to a fallen President" is being threatened "all in the name of one man's vanity."

Norm Eisen, a Democracy Defenders Action co-founder and one of Beatty's attorneys, wrote on social media that "the administration is now threatening in federal court to LEVEL the Kennedy Center if Trump does not get his way," according to the Guardian. "His path of destruction knows no bounds."

Hands Off the Arts, a group of more than 2,800 activists, told the Guardian the government's filing amounts to telling the judge to let Trump "hijack JFK's memorial or I will turn it into a crater." The group pointed to the demolished White House East Wing.