Philadelphia poised to square off against Trump in Third Circuit over future of slavery exhibit

PHILADELPHIA (CN) — The Third Circuit is gearing up for a legal clash Tuesday between the City of Philadelphia and the Trump administration after the federal government dismantled a public exhibit about the people enslaved by George Washington.

In 2010, the National Park Service and Philadelphia unveiled "The President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation," an open-air exhibit across the street from Independence Hall and directly atop the remains of Washington's Philadelphia home.

Consisting of several informational panels and video presentations placed on walls indicating where Washington's house stood, the exhibit told of the nine enslaved Africans held on the site by the first president: Austin, Paris, Hercules, Christopher Sheels, Richmond, Giles, Moll, Joe and Ona Judge — the last of whom fled Washington's enslavement in 1796 and evaded a subsequent manhunt, spending her final 51 years a free woman.

In March 2025, however, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to review national park displays the administration argues "inappropriately disparage" the United States.

After months of delays, the National Park Service began dismantling the exhibit on Jan. 22, prying the panels off the walls and shutting off video presentations.

When asked by onlookers about the removal, one employee repeatedly answered: "I'm just following my orders."

Philadelphia officials argue those orders violated the law.

Under a 2006 agreement between the city and National Park Service, both parties had an equal right to approve the exhibit's final design. The city transferred the project's intellectual property rights to the federal agency in 2015, but according to the city, that transfer did not include the right to alter the exhibit.

"The city's right to approve the exhibit's final design, including the interpretive displays, would be meaningless if the NPS could at any time later change or remove the displays without the city's approval," the city says in its complaint, filed in Philadelphia federal court hours after the exhibit's removal.

Furthermore, under a 1950 congressional agreement for the historic grounds surrounding Independence Hall — including the President's House site — major alterations of structures on the land cannot be undertaken unless mutually agreed upon by the federal agency and the city.

Because the Interior Department failed to consult with and receive approval from the city, its removal of the exhibit violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the city says.

Speaking for the Interior Department in federal court on Jan. 30, U.S. Attorney Gregory in den Berken asserted the President's House site does not qualify as a building under the 1950 congressional agreement.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, disagreed.

"You can't treat it like changing the definition of what bricks and mortar are because you want to do something with its information," Rufe told in den Berken. "You just can't go back and forth with the projects like that. Where does the Liberty Bell fit in? Where does the National Constitution Center fit in?"

"Picking and choosing what you want to interpret as you think the executive order says you must does not lend itself to rule of law," Rufe continued. "Interpretation does not give consistency to history. And it can't be that you practice law like that. It can't be that you practice running the government like that, because everyone needs rule of law and consistency to believe in it. And what does the Park Service's behavior here leave us to believe?"

Rufe also disagreed with in den Berken's assertion that the exhibit's removal did not constitute a final agency action, which would prevent the city from arguing an arbitraty and capricious act occurred.

On Feb. 16 — Presidents' Day — Rufe issued an impassioned rebuke of the Trump administration's efforts, ordering full restoration of the exhibit and comparing the administration's actions to those of George Orwell's fictional Ingsoc party.

"As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's '1984' now existed, with its motto 'Ignorance is Strength,' this court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts," Rufe wrote in her opinion. "It does not."

Following the Interior Department's appeal, however, U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hardiman — a George W. Bush appointee — stayed Rufe's order demanding restoration of the exhibit, instead ordering on April 9 that the federal government "continue to preserve the status quo."

Since then, the exhibit has remained in limbo, with about half of the panels returned to the President's House site and half remaining in federal storage one block away.

Three U.S. Circuit judges — George W. Bush appointee Hardiman, Donald Trump appointee Peter J. Phipps, and Barack Obama appointee L. Felipe Restrepo — will hear arguments from Philadelphia and Interior Department attorneys Tuesday afternoon and ultimately decide the fate of the exhibit questioning the morality and folk hero status of the first U.S. president.