Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Heart, as seen from the Washington Monument, on Aug. 10.
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A superior court docket decide in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Kennedy Heart to pay greater than $250,000 to a jazz musician who final December canceled the annual Christmas Eve efficiency he had hosted there for practically 20 years. Chuck Redd, a vibraphonist and drummer, determined to cancel the live performance after President Trump’s identify was added to the facade of the humanities middle that month.
After Redd canceled the efficiency, the Kennedy Heart vowed to sue Redd for $1 million in damages. In June, Decide Tanya M. Jones Bosier dismissed the middle’s breach of contract swimsuit towards Redd, granting his movement to dismiss the case underneath the district’s anti-SLAPP statute, a legislation designed to guard public curiosity speech.
In her ruling Monday, the decide decreed that the Kennedy Heart should pay Redd $252,479.70 to cowl attorneys’ charges and different authorized prices.
The Kennedy Heart in an announcement mentioned it supposed to enchantment.
In an announcement emailed to NPR on Tuesday, certainly one of Redd’s attorneys, Lisa J. Banks, mentioned the ruling was acceptable, including: “No citizen ought to should spend money and time heading off baseless and politically motivated lawsuits filed by the Trump Administration.”
In June, the middle eliminated the president’s identify from the complicated’s facade, following a federal court docket ruling. Trump, who ousted the Kennedy Heart’s earlier president, board chair and board members in February 2025 and changed them with shut allies and supporters, stays chairman.
The way forward for the Kennedy Heart is nonetheless unsure, as most of its public programming and academic actions stay suspended.Trump had introduced that he deliberate to shut the complicated as of July 5 for 2 years of intensive renovations, however the Federal District Courtroom in Washington has ordered an replace from the complicated’s administration on its plans concerning building, programming, and public entry.
The decide in that case, Christopher R. Cooper, had granted the board time to analysis and vote on these plans. Its board is slated to fulfill this month to vote on a plan going ahead, however final week The Washington Put up reported that Democratic lawmakers on the middle’s board, together with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), had but to obtain any up to date assessments or plans to evaluate previous to the assembly. NPR has reached out to Sen. Whitehouse’s workplace for present remark, however didn’t obtain a right away reply.
