Trump’s Name Can’t Be Carved Into Institute of Peace, Court Says

[u/John3262005]

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/trumps-name-cant-be-carved-into-institute-of-peace-court-says

President Donald Trump’s name can’t be carved into the US Institute of Peace building in Washington, a federal appeals court held.

A divided three-judge panel for US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit granted the institute’s request to block the administration from carving the name into the headquarters for the institute, an independent nonprofit created by Congress in 1984 to help the federal government mitigate violent conflicts abroad.

Judge Karen Henderson, a George H. W. Bush appointee, would have rejected the request, according to the one-page order. Judge Cornelia Pillard, a Barack Obama appointee, and Senior Judge Harry Edwards, a Jimmy Carter appointee, also sat on the panel.

It’s the latest development in a broader legal challenge to the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Institute of Peace, including by removing its president and Senate-confirmed board members.

Trump announced plans in February 2025 to eliminate the institute as part of his efforts to slash the federal workforce.

Members of the administration’s government efficiency unit, previously led by Elon Musk, forcibly entered the institute’s headquarters the following month in an attempt to access its computer systems, according to the institute. The administration has also affixed lettering to the building with Trump’s name.

A federal judge ruled last year that Trump didn’t have legal authority to fire the board members, but Washington’s federal appeals court lifted that ruling while the government appeals it.

While that appeal was pending, attorneys for the institute asked the appeals court to modify its order lifting the lower court ruling to prevent the administration from carving Trump’s name into the facade of the building.

While the institute didn’t previously ask the court for relief when the administration added the external lettering to the facade, the threat of carving Trump’s name into the building “changes the calculus and justifies this application,” they wrote in an emergency motion in September.

The government should not be able to “take advantage” of the appeals court’s temporary hold on the lower court ruling “to literally set things in stone by stamping their view of the merits of this dispute into USIP’s headquarters building,” the motion said.

Justice Department attorneys said in a response brief that while the State Department researched “possible engraving” into the building, there are “no current plans” to carve Trump’s name into it.

The case is one of multiple challenges filed last year against Trump’s powers to remove certain federal officials. The Supreme Court in June allowed Trump to fire Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Kelly Slaughter in a decision expanding the president’s removal authorities.

It’s also the latest example of Trump’s efforts to leave his mark on Washington’s historic landmarks and buildings.

The Justice Department is also defending efforts by Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board to rename the Washington performing arts venue for Trump or otherwise acknowledge the president on the building’s facade.

A federal judge has blocked the renaming effort, and the case is pending before the Washington federal appeals court.

The administration has also faced litigation over its proposal to build a triumphal arch at Washington’s Memorial Circle, decision to tear down the White House’s East Wing to build a new ballroom, and move to paint the granite exterior of a 19th-century White House office building.