Overview
- The Third Circuit, in an order Thursday, barred the administration from altering or damaging any panels and required city consent for any changes at the President’s House slavery memorial.
- The court left in place a pause on fully restoring the site to its pre‑January condition, but it directed the government to preserve all exhibit materials and maintain the status quo as the case proceeds.
- The National Park Service quietly posted images this week of 11 proposed replacement panels that shift focus from the nine people Washington enslaved to a broader narrative and portray him as privately doubtful of slavery.
- Advocacy groups including Avenging the Ancestors Coalition called the proposed panels a whitewash, while Interior officials said the new materials aim to tell the full breadth of U.S. history.
- Key dates now set include a May 1 city filing on the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss and June 2 oral arguments on the appeal, in a dispute rooted in Trump’s 2025 order to review exhibits that officials say disparage Americans.