(WASHINGTON) — As the city of Philadelphia fights to preserve the slavery memorial at the President’s House, a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can remove and replace the exhibit at the site of President George Washington’s former home.
The Thursday ruling comes after the Trump administration stated in a court filing on Wednesday that it removed panels at the exhibit — some of which were restored in February following a judge’s order — because they allegedly “disparage” Americans.
The outdoor memorial, “From Enslavement to Emancipation,” is located at Independence National Historic Park. The exhibit tells the stories of the nine people enslaved by Washington.
The unanimous appeals court decision tosses a February district court ruling that ordered the National Parks Service (NPS) to restore the panels that were removed from the site. NPS took down the outdoor memorial in January before it was partially restored in February after a district court ruling, but not all materials were returned to the site.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that while the city had standing to sue, the lower court wrongly interpreted the contract claims brought by the city and determined that they don’t have merit.
“In sum, the City has standing to sue because it alleges that its contractual rights were violated, but we should not, as the District Court did, mistake that jurisdictional determination for a conclusion that the City’s underlying statutory and contract claims have merit. They do not,” the appeals court ruling said.
ABC News reached out to the city of Philadelphia but requests for comment were not immediately returned.
Asked about the appeals court ruling and about a potential timeline for replacing the exhibit, a spokesperson for the Interior Department on Thursday provided ABC News with a three-word statement: “Trust in Trump.”
The city of Philadelphia argued in a lawsuit filed in January that by removing the panels “without notice,” NPS violated various congressional laws, as well as a 2006 agreement NPS made with the city and laid out the terms for building the exhibit, which opened to the public in 2010.
Amid pending litigation, NPS shared proposed changes to the panels at the slavery memorial that were published on its website in April.
The images shared by NPS don’t show photos of the original panels, but share proposed new panels and revised text. Of note, are proposed changes to the panels titled “Presidents Washington and Adams on Slavery,” and “The Constitution and Slavery.”
The appeals court’s ruling said, “These new panels are full of historical context. They highlight the momentous events that took place in the President’s House and the other sites at Independence National Historical Park. They acknowledge the evil of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the story of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President’s House, remind us of their essential humanity.”
The ruling added, “Given all these developments, we cannot agree with the District Court that the exhibit removal six months ago was NPS’s last word on the matter.”
Avenging the Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), the advocacy group founded by attorney Michael Coard in 2002 to advocate for the building of the memorial, criticized the [proposed changes in an April statement, calling the replacement panels “deeply offensive.”
“The National Park Service’s most recent posting of proposed replacement panels at the President’s House Slavery Memorial is deeply offensive and represents yet another troubling attempt to distort and censor American history,” the group’s statement said, criticizing NPS for not consulting with ATAC before proposing the new panels.
“What we are seeing now is not restoration–it is revision,” ATAC’s statement added. “It is an attempt to sanitize history and present a version of the past that is more comfortable, but far less truthful.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Interior Dept. told ABC News in a statement on April 9 that the changes underscore the administration’s commitment to “celebrating and acknowledging the full breadth of our nation’s history.”
“The hard work and sacrifices of the men and women who built this nation deserve to be remembered and honored,” the spokesperson said. “By telling the full story, every triumph, every challenge, and every step towards a more perfect union we strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here.”
The Interior Department told ABC News in several statements that the removal of the exhibit was made in compliance with a March 27, 2025, executive order in which President Donald Trump ordered the Interior Dept. to remove content that cast the United States’ “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
In the public filing on Wednesday, which stems from a separate lawsuit challenging the removal of materials at national parks across the country, the Interior Department indicated that while most glass panels at the slavery exhibit were restored in February after a judge’s order, the “large format metal panels were damaged and not restored.”
The government did not specify in the list the process for recreating the metal panels, writing “TBD” in that section.
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