A federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration does not have to reinstall the original slavery exhibits at the President’s House.<\/p>\n
Three judges vacated a previous injunction compelling the National Parks Service to restore the panels it stripped from the historic site<\/a> in January. The panel of justices\u00a0in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0found that the city had not demonstrated the concrete harm it suffered from the removal, and praised the federal government’s proposed alternatives.<\/p>\n MORE:\u00a0World Cafe Live says it’s entering an ‘exciting new era.’ Workers and its landlord still have issues with its past<\/a><\/p>\n The case concerns a set of displays detailing George Washington’s participation in the slave trade, and the nine enslaved people he brought with him to the nation’s temporary capital in Philadelphia. The exhibit opened to the public in 2010. Without notifying the city, NPS took\u00a0down these displays\u00a0earlier this year, citing President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order\u00a0directing agencies to review text at public parks and monuments for “divisive narratives.”\u00a0The city of Philadelphia sought to have them restored through a lawsuit<\/a> filed hours after the removal and was granted the preliminary injunction<\/a> in district court in February.<\/p>\n While the case has proceeded, the Trump administration shared the text and images<\/a> it intended to install in the original exhibit’s place online. Advocates<\/a> and historians<\/a> say these alternatives soften Washington’s participation in the slave trade. But in the appeals court opinion issued Thursday, the judges deemed that these new panels were “full of historical context” and captured “momentous events” that occurred at the site.<\/p>\n “They acknowledge the evil of slavery,\u00a0including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the story of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President\u2019s\u00a0House, remind us of their essential humanity. And they recall\u00a0the price our Nation paid ‘to finish the work that the Founders\u00a0had begun and end slavery in the United States once and for\u00a0all,'” the panel wrote.<\/p>\n The judges also argued that city lawyers and the district court which ruled in their favor did not properly distinguish between the Independence National Historical Park and\u00a0Independence Square. The latter is the block bounded by Walnut, 5th, Chestnut and 6th streets and is owned by the city. The wider park spans 55 acres and, apart from Independence Square, is owned by the federal government. The President’s House is located outside the city-owned square.<\/p>\n “It transforms the City\u2019s authority from a right to supervise and\u00a0veto changes to the City\u2019s own five-acre property into a right\u00a0to supervise and veto changes to the entire 55-acre Park \u2014\u00a0including more than 40 historic structures on property owned\u00a0by the United States,” the panel wrote of this conflation.<\/p>\n While the appeals court agreed the city had standing to sue, it took issue with its arguments and the findings of the district court. The judges remanded the case back to the lower court with instructions to dismiss several of the city’s claims due to lack of jurisdiction.<\/p>\n Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt
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