Judges signaled skepticism of the Department of Justice’s defense for scrubbing references to slavery at a historic site, according to reporting by the New York Times.
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In January, the Trump administration removed placards and videos commemorating the history of slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. After a lawsuit by the city of Philadelphia, the National Park Service had to restore the displays, but the DOJ’s appeal of the ruling isn’t going well, the Times reported.
Two of the three judges on the appeals court panel “appeared skeptical” of the administration’s position during a Tuesday hearing. Judge L. Felipe Restrepo, an Obama appointee, questioned whether the government was seeking “unfettered discretion” over the site. The third judge, Peter J. Phipps, a Trump appointee, appeared more sympathetic to the government’s arguments.
Independence National Historical Park preserves sites tied to American independence. The placards and videos were displayed at the site where George Washington lived before the construction of the White House. They were memorials to enslaved people who lived and worked at the site, including the names of nine enslaved people carved into a stone monument, the report described.
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At the Tuesday hearing, DOJ attorneys argued that Trump had the power to remove those carved names. The Trump administration initiated the removal with an executive order calling for a rollback of a “distorted narrative,” the Times reported.
The hearing was attended by more than 100 people, according to the Times. Cara McClellan, an attorney representing groups allied with the city of Philadelphia, told judges: “Just imagine if the government removed the Lincoln Memorial right before the bicentennial. That’s the kind of dangerous precedent that we must avoid here.”
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