Trump administration appeals judge's ruling over President's House slavery exhibits

Abraham Gutman, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Feb 17, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The Trump administration has appealed a federal judge’s order requiring that the National Park Service restore all the slavery-related exhibits it abruptly removed last month from the President’s House Site in Philadelphia.

The U.S. attorneys representing the federal government argued previously that the White House has full discretion over the exhibits in national parks, an argument U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe called “dangerous” and “horrifying” during last month’s hearing.

The notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit at this stage does not require a brief arguing what the government says the judge got wrong when she issued the injunction. But the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service said in a statement Tuesday that the agencies “disagree” with the injunction.

“The National Park Service routinely updates exhibits across the park system to ensure historical accuracy and completeness,” the statement said. “If not for this unnecessary judicial intervention, updated interpretive materials providing a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall would have been installed in the coming days.”

Neither agency responded to a request for more information on the plan for alternative panels. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Rufe on Monday granted Philadelphia’s request for an injunction requiring the full restoration of exhibits removed from the President’s House on Jan. 22. She further enjoined the federal government from making any changes to the site without the agreement of the city.

The panels that tell the stories of the nine enslaved African people who lived in President George Washington’s house must be displayed again swiftly, the judge said in her 40-page opinion.

The order directs the agencies to comply “immediately” and “forthwith” but does not include a specific deadline.

“Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history,” wrote Rufe, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

In addition to the appeal, the federal government will need to ask for a stay on the order or risk not complying with Rufe’s injunction.

But though the panels have not been restored, the ruling marked a victory for Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and the advocates who pushed to create the exhibit.

Parker addressed the injunction in a video Tuesday celebrating the ruling as a “huge win for the people of this city and our country.”

“This summer Philadelphia will lead a litany of Semiquincentennial celebrations in honor of America’s 250th birthday, and please know that we will do so with a great deal of pride,” Parker said. “A pride that comes from acknowledging all of our history, and all of our truth, no matter how painful it may be.”

Philadelphia’s lawsuit was the first in the nation challenging the removal of exhibits from national parks in accordance with President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order, which instructed the Interior Department to remove any content or displays that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

The federal government violated a 2006 cooperative agreement between the National Park Service and the city when it dismantled the exhibits without notice in what amounted to an unlawful “arbitrary and capricious” act, Philadelphia’s lawsuit said. Rufe found that the agreement is still binding.

As the city’s litigation proceeds following the injunction, it is not the only effort to address changes to historic exhibits on federal parks.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday by park conservation advocacy groups in Massachusetts federal court says that removals of the type that took place in Philadelphia violate “Congress’s clear instructions.”

The National Parks Conservation Association’s lawsuit notes that in addition to the slavery signs removed from the President’s House, the Trump administration removed signs about climate change from Maine’s Acadia National Park and a creative exhibit about the women’s role in the history of Muir Woods National Park, among other examples.

The suit asks a federal judge to order the Interior Department and National Park Service to “cease all unlawful efforts to remove up-to-date and accurate historical or scientific information from the national parks, and order that interpretive materials that have been removed pursuant to the unlawful Order be restored.”

_____