The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio Kennedy Center trustee, after the board purported to rename the federally designated institution the "Trump-Kennedy Center." The Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse docket summary says Beatty argued that Congress fixed the institution's name as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and that the board exceeded its statutory authority by changing it.
Judge Cooper granted partial summary judgment and injunctive relief on 29 May, according to docket entries for orders 48 and 49 and the accompanying memorandum opinion. The docket lists the defendants' 11 June notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit and their motion to stay the permanent injunction pending appeal.
Cooper denied the stay motion on 12 June. In the docketed minute order, he wrote that the defendants had not made a strong showing that they were likely to succeed on appeal and had not shown irreparable injury from complying with the renaming injunction. The same order said the public interest is rarely served by perpetuating unlawful government action.
CBS News reported that the Justice Department also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stay Cooper's ruling, and that a D.C. Circuit panel rejected the request for an immediate stay in a one-page order while directing the parties to file briefs later in June. That appellate order is the procedural step that left the removal deadline in place while the appeal continued.
The Kennedy Center then sought more time to file proof of compliance, citing weather-related delay in removing signage. CBS News reported that attorneys for the administration filed notice around 11 a.m. Eastern on 13 June saying the center had removed signage that purported to name the building after Trump, updated the website and withdrawn related trademark applications. CBS also reported that Matt Floca said the name had been removed from physical signage, the website, employee email signatures, letterheads and brochures; AP and the Guardian identify Floca as the center's executive director and chief operating officer.