A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration can alter exhibits at the President’s House, overturning an earlier decision and siding against Mayor Cherelle Parker’s office.
National Park Service staff removed 34 interpretative panels from the site in January, prompting an immediate lawsuit from City Hall. A month later, U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia M. Rufe ordered NPS to restore the President’s House exhibit within days.
Crews began replacing the panels, but work halted when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit paused portions of the preliminary injunction, leaving the site in a state of partial installation ever since.
On Thursday, the Third Circuit, which is a step below the U.S. Supreme Court, threw out Rufe’s order altogether and instructed her to dismiss four of the five counts brought by the city’s legal team. Rufe previously indicated that she did not have jurisdiction to rule on the remaining count, though it has not been formally dropped.
The higher court’s decision comes less than three weeks before the Fourth of July, leaving the fate of the President's House in limbo for the festivities surrounding the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Representatives from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which was named in the suit, and the NPS did not respond to a request for comment.
Parker, in a video message posted to social media Thursday, said she "will pursue every legal action possible in efforts to reverse this decision."
The Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), a group that advocated for the installation to be created more than two decades ago and filed legal briefs in support of the city’s argument, said it “will consider all available options moving forward.”
“This is definitely not the end of this fight, nor does it diminish the importance of ensuring that the full truth of our nation's history is preserved and presented accurately,” ATAC said in a statement. “We are currently conducting a thorough review of the Court's opinion and consulting with our legal team to fully understand its implications.”
While Rufe compared the Trump administration’s actions to the “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hardiman commended the NPS’s planned replacement materials for the President’s House, which have been posted online.
“These new panels are full of historical context,” he wrote in a 36-page opinion. “They highlight the momentous events that took place in the President’s House and the other sites at Independence National Historical Park.
“They acknowledge the evil of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the story of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President’s House, remind us of their essential humanity. And they recall the price our Nation paid ‘to finish the work that the Founders had begun and end slavery in the United States once and for all.’”
During a June 2 oral argument session before Hardiman and two other judges, attorneys for the city noted that the new panels were not made public until after park service employees tore down the old exhibit.
Federal government lawyers have estimated that the replacement materials could be installed within three weeks, at a cost of $20,000.
In light of the redesigned exhibit, Hardiman said that the removal of the panels did not qualify as a final agency action that can be challenged under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Congressional legislation passed in 1948 establishing Independence National Historical Park incorporates a mutual agreement clause for the federal and city governments. However, Hardiman opined, it only applies to the city-owned block that includes Independence Hall, Congress Hall and the old City Hall – not the President’s House or the entire 55-acre historical park.
Hardiman also wrote that a 2006 pact between NPS and the city relating to the development of the President's House only requires the park service to “maintain” the installation. It’s “not a promise that the exhibits will forever remain in place regardless of the owner’s wishes," he added.
The President’s House, which opened in 2010, marks the site of the long-demolished executive mansion that was home to presidents George Washington and John Adams from 1790 to 1800. It is located at 6th and Market streets, by the entrance to the Liberty Bell Center.
Brick walls outline the original footprint of the house, and the exhibit was designed to highlight the paradox of slavery and freedom during the nation’s founding period, with a particular emphasis on the stories of the nine people Washington kept in bondage at the property.
The exhibit came under federal scrutiny following Trump’s March 2025 executive order directing the NPS to remove “descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”
City Council President Kenyatta Johnson said he is “deeply disappointed” in the court decision, adding that “Philadelphia remains committed to elevating the stories of those whose experiences have too often been overlooked.”
“At a time when communities across the country are seeking a deeper understanding of our past, we must not retreat from telling the complete story of who we are as a nation,” he continued, in a statement. “We owe that commitment to our past, and to future generations.”
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