{"id":849714,"date":"2026-06-07T01:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T01:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/849714\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T01:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T01:49:12","slug":"kennedy-center-loses-case-against-musician-who-canceled-over-trump-naming-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/849714\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Center Loses Case Against Musician Who Canceled Over Trump Naming Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge in Washington on Friday tossed a lawsuit filed by the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts against a jazz musician who canceled a performance<\/a> at the venue\u2019s annual Christmas Eve concert last year after the center\u2019s board added President Trump\u2019s name to the building.<\/p>\n

In an order throwing out the breach-of-contract case, the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier, wrote that the Kennedy Center failed to prove that Chuck Redd, a jazz musician and a host of the institution\u2019s holiday program, had signed a contract to perform as he had in years past.<\/p>\n

The dispute arose after the Kennedy Center\u2019s board voted to rename the institution The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, according to court papers.<\/p>\n

Following the decision, Mr. Redd said that he would not participate.<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center sued, accusing Mr. Redd of breaking an agreement to appear at the concert. He argued that no enforceable contract existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is undisputed that Redd did not sign the 2025 Agreement that the Center provided,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

According to court papers, the center said it sustained damages \u201cfrom lost good will with the public, wasted marketing expenses, and sunk costs preparing for a concert that did not occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the judge noted the center did not lose any ticket sales because the concert was free, \u201cand the entire performance was canceled as a result of multiple artists canceling, so the center did not incur costs for staff or other performers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a lawyer for Mr. Redd, Lisa J. Banks, noted that the suit was dismissed based on the District of Columbia\u2019s Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) Act, which empowers defendants to fight lawsuits meant to intimidate and silence opposing points of view on matters of public interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe center sued Mr. Redd because he publicly and rightly objected to adding Donald Trump\u2019s name to the Kennedy Center, a living memorial to former President John F. Kennedy,\u201d she said. \u201cThe lawsuit against Mr. Redd was political retribution, pure and simple, by the Trump Kennedy Center, and the court correctly saw it as such in dismissing the case with prejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling was another setback for the institution stemming from the same renaming dispute that prompted Mr. Redd\u2019s withdrawal.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the center\u2019s general counsel in a memo<\/a> directed staff to \u201cimmediately\u201d remove President Trump\u2019s name from official material after a federal judge ruled on May 29<\/a> that the board of trustees lacked the authority to rename the institution.<\/p>\n

The memo also instructed employees to replace indoor and outdoor signage bearing the disputed name by June 12.<\/p>\n

In a 94-page opinion<\/a>, Judge Christopher R. Cooper, of the Federal District Court in Washington, determined that \u201cCongress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy Center officials have indicated that they are planning to appeal Judge Cooper\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge in Washington on Friday tossed a lawsuit filed by the John F. Kennedy Center for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":849715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[343141,347238,81213,5959,171,10607,343140,6752,975,60616,343142,347237,258073,277,67,16852,132,68],"class_list":["post-849714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-center-for-the-performing-arts","tag-chuck-1958","tag-decisions-and-verdicts","tag-donald-j","tag-entertainment","tag-jazz","tag-john-f","tag-kennedy","tag-music","tag-names","tag-organizational","tag-redd","tag-suits-and-litigation-civil","tag-trump","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-politics-and-government","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116706320462148403","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}