Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore slavery exhibits to the President's House

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Updated Feb. 16, 2026, 1:53 p.m. ET | Published Feb. 16, 2026, 1:25 p.m. ET


A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the President’s House last month. U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe issued a ruling Monday requiring the federal government to “restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026,” which is the day before the exhibits were removed.

The order does not give the government a deadline for the restoration of the site. It does require that the National Park Service take steps to maintain the site and ensure the safety of the exhibits, which memorialize the enslaved people who lived in George Washington’s Philadelphia home during his presidency and were abruptly removed in January.

Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, compares the federal government’s argument that it can unilaterally control the exhibits in national parks to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984, a novel about a dystopian totalitarian regime.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed... 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. “It does not.”

Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/slavery-exhibits-presidents-house-site-philadelphia-restoration-federal-judge-ruling-trump-20260216.html

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Just breaking. GOOD!!!

Link to ORDERS (PDFs)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.paed.648842/gov.uscourts.paed.648842.53.0.pdf
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.paed.648842/gov.uscourts.paed.648842.54.0.pdf

REFERENCES

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143603365
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143603549
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143608812

Article updated.

Original article/headline -

Federal judge orders Trump admin to restore slavery exhibits to the President's House

Published Feb. 16, 2026, 1:25 p.m. ET


A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the President's House last month. U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe issued a ruling Monday requiring the federal government to "restore the President's House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026," which is the day before the exhibits were removed.

The order does not give the government a deadline for the restoration of the site. It does require that the National Park Service take steps to maintain the site and ensure the safety of the exhibits.

The exhibits, which memorialize the enslaved people who lived in George Washington's Philadelphia home during his presidency, were abruptly removed in January.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker's administration filed a federal lawsuit against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, and their respective agencies, on the same day the exhibits were dismantled. The complaint argues that dismantling the exhibits was an "arbitrary and capricious" act that violated a 2006 cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government.

[sakabatou]

1. As if he's going to comply with that, like other orders

[BumRushDaShow]

3. If they don't do it

I guarantee that Michael Coard (one of the chief lawyers/activists who pushed and advocated for it) will do it.

There was another rally scheduled for today associated with this (they were apparently out there last week too so he repurposed the announcement graphic for today) -

Link to tweet

Michael Coard
@MichaelCoard
·
Follow
👀🗣️🎯💯🔥👊🏾❗️”Rally to Restore the Truth!” Join Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC) on Presidents’ Day (2/16) in Philly to stop racist censorship at America’s first White House where George Washington enslaved Black men, women, and children. Here’s more info:
Image
10:46 PM · Feb 13, 2026

[NJCher]

10. obligatory info

to this all-too-common post:

Whether or not he complies with it, it has to go on the record for prosecution later.

[LiberalArkie]

2. U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe

On the recommendation of Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, Rufe was nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by President George W. Bush on January 23, 2002 to a seat vacated by Judge Norma Levy Shapiro. Rufe was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 30, 2002 and received her commission on May 3, 2002. She assumed senior status on December 31, 2021

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Yup - she was a Shrub judge.

ETA - the opening of her Opinion (the first PDF) has this -

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Rufe, J. February 16, 2026

All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly
as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible,
once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken
place.

George Orwell, 1984¹

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. It does not.

(snip)

[NJCher]

18. I'm in awe

Of her ability to bring in such an appropriate quote.

We English teachers strive to get students to do this. We will spend a week showing students how to introduce a quote. Then another couple of classes on how to “unpack” the quote for the reader and show its significance to the topic sentence or thesis statement.

I’ll bet an English teacher somewhere is smiling with great satisfaction over this writing.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. I expect it is hard for young people to do that "automatically"

You have to have been around the block a few times, hearing the quotes in various contexts, to recognize an analogous situation to deploy those quotes!

[Miguelito Loveless]

5. With no date specified

Child Rapist will ignore it.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. The advocates for that project are going to make a HUGE fuss until that stuff is pulled out of storage

and they will put it back themselves.

They ain't playing.

[70sEraVet]

8. That's my guess, too.

Park Service employees are VERY dedicated to their jobs, and I've no doubt they were thoroughly pissed about those displays being taken down.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I followed the whole saga of that exhibit coming to fruition and used to work near where it was

I detailed some info about it here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3608859

I remember when the Regional Director there at the time (back before it opened in 2010, since the NPS had a regional office in my work building) didn't want it there and was finally pushed to allow the project to happen. So you do have some of those GS-1000 appointees who can and do thwart things that can be beneficial to this society.

[NJCher]

11. everybody knows that

see my post 10 above.

[FakeNoose]

7. Can we make this retroactive and restore the East Wing of the White House?

Thank you Judge Cynthia M. Rufe!



Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_M._Rufe

[NJCher]

12. happy to see this posted

When this originally happened and Bum Rush posted about it, I did some reading on this judge. She's terrific!!

on edit: This is the kind of information that enhances our understanding of this event. Thanks for your positive contribution.

[FakeNoose]

13. If it weren't for our honest federal judges, we'd be up the creek without a paddle

[twodogsbarking]

14. Ask for volunteers or a business to volunteer to put it back up. Send the bill to Trump.

Add signage in the area to direct people to it.

[mdbl]

15. I agree. We need to start charging his personal wealth for all this destruction.

Or let his oligarch butt kissers foot the bill. Might as well make them use their money for some good.

[Rhiannon12866]

16. Judge orders Trump admin to restore slavery exhibits at President's House Site - 6abc Philadelphia

A federal judge has ordered the restoration of interpretive panels telling stories of people who were enslaved at the President's House site in Philadelphia, siding with city officials and advocacy groups who argued that removing the displays erased the history of enslaved people held by George Washington.

What began as a protest at the President's House on Monday afternoon turned into a celebration when supporters learned of the ruling. - Aired on 02/16/2026.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. 🚨PISSED OFF GOP Judge goes BERSERK on Trump in OPEN COURT - Meidas Touch

In breaking news, a Senior Federal Judge in Philly has BLOCKED Trump’s efforts to operate his own Ministry of Truth to whitewash slavery out of American History, and deface and destroy a national monument in Independence Hall Park dedicated to George Washington’s first house and his enslavement of 9 people.

Michael Popok reports on Judge Rufe quoting from George Orwell, and takes on Trump whom she calls a base “chief magistrate” who is not allowed to both sides the slavery in America facts just because he is in power. - 02/16/2026.

[riversedge]

20. Other US National Parks and Forests that have taken town signs should follow this

[LetMyPeopleVote]

21. Deadline Legal Blog-Judge cites Orwell in rejecting Trump's bid to erase history of slavery in Philadelphia

The Trump administration’s moves to rewrite history are meeting resistance in the courts.

Judge cites Orwell in rejecting Trump’s bid to erase history of slavery in Philadelphia - MS NOW apple.news/A7w5tpJCjQZK...

— (@bishopcharles.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T18:56:08.767Z

https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/philadelphia-slavery-history-display-judge-orwell

Trying to erase history is a theme of Donald Trump’s second term.

But his administration’s revisionist moves hit a snag on Monday. That’s when a federal judge ruled that the city of Philadelphia is likely to win its lawsuit against the administration’s attempt to whitewash George Washington’s slave-owning history at the President’s House Site, a location in the city that commemorates the first official presidential residence.

The suit was sparked by the National Park Service’s removal last month of educational panels and accompanying videos that discussed slavery. The city moved for a preliminary injunction to restore the exhibit.

Granting the motion on Presidents Day, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe wrote that the federal government “claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control.” The George W. Bush appointee wrote that those claims “echo Big Brother’s domain in [George] Orwell’s 1984,” specifically the dystopian novel’s government Records Department.

Turning to the present day, Rufe wrote, “The government here likewise asserts truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten.” But a government agency “cannot arbitrarily decide what is true, based on its own whims or the whims of the new leadership, regardless of the evidence before it,” she wrote in support of her conclusion that the city will likely win its claims that the removal was “arbitrary and capricious.”

And though Rufe’s preliminary ruling isn’t the final word in the litigation, it’s just one example of the resistance that the administration’s efforts to rewrite history is meeting in the courts.

On Tuesday, a coalition of groups filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts that seeks to require the federal government “to cease all unlawful efforts to remove up-to-date and accurate historical or scientific information from the national parks” and to restore interpretative materials that have been removed.

The suit cited the Philadelphia erasure as among the litany of revisionist moves, writing in Tuesday’s complaint that the government campaign “escalated in recent weeks, as the National Park Service, implementing an order of the Secretary of the Interior, tore down the exhibit in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park memorializing the legacy of people enslaved by the country’s first President; ripped away signage detailing climate threats at Fort Sumter, one of the country’s most environmentally endangered parks; and wiped away descriptions of history and science at countless national parks throughout the United States.”

This opinion made me smile