Congresswoman Joyce Beatty’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump over the Kennedy Center took a wrong turn when her meeting invitation was discovered in a spam email.
The fight over renaming the Kennedy Center
The debate over adding Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center has raised questions about presidential monuments and what they reveal about our values today.
- In a court filing, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty accused President Trump of not inviting her to the upcoming Kennedy Center board meeting.
- The meeting invitation was then found in the spam folder of her email inbox.
Congresswoman Joyce Beatty made an unfortunate blunder ahead of a court hearing in her battle with President Donald Trump over the fate of the Kennedy Center.
The Ohio Democratic Party and Kennedy Center directors sued Trump and other directors in December over efforts to rename the center after Trump and close it for renovations. Ms Beattie had sought a restraining order so she could attend the board meeting and oppose plans to close the center for two years. The case was scheduled to be heard by a federal judge on the afternoon of March 12th.
In a court filing ahead of the hearing, Beatty accused Trump of not inviting him to a Kennedy Center board meeting scheduled for next week at the White House. Justice Department lawyers countered in a court filing that she was invited to join the board.
As first reported by The Hill, the invitation ended up in the spam folder in her inbox, her attorney later acknowledged in a court filing.
“Upon further investigation, it appears that the email regarding the board meeting was forwarded to Plaintiff’s spam folder,” Beatty’s attorneys wrote.
They stress in court filings that when Beatty contacted the Kennedy Center’s general counsel, they ignored her for two days and that she had reason to believe she was being excluded.
Beatty’s lawyer wrote that “her being ‘allowed to attend’ does not come close to undoing her harm,” noting that she had been forced into silence before.
Beatty said she was silenced and denied the opportunity to speak at the December board meeting, and the White House claims the board voted unanimously to change the center’s name to the Trump Kennedy Center.
A spokesperson for Mr. Beatty did not immediately respond to Dispatch’s request for comment.
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky. @LairdWrite.
