The Kennedy Center said in a late Friday court filing that it is still weighing a full-scale closure for renovation and that no additional programming has been scheduled.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper issued an order on May 29 that blocked the center's board from moving forward with plans to "conduct an orderly wind-down of programming through the spring of 2026, and close [the center's] doors entirely effective July 6, 2026."
Cooper said the board failed in its fiduciary responsibilities and called the decision to close "ill-informed" and "seemingly preordained."
Kennedy Center executive director Matt Floca said in the Friday filing that he has laid out three options that will be presented to the center's board in mid-July and that management will allow for "continued public access" to the building, which also houses an extensive JFK exhibit.
Justice Department lawyers said "management has not yet taken any affirmative steps related to programming or staffing."
Attorneys for the plaintiffs accused the Kennedy Center's leaders of planning to leave the building a "lifeless husk." Opponents who filed the suit to block the closure, led by Kennedy Center board member Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, said in their part of the joint filing that the center's leaders could be working to restore programming but "flatly refuse to do anything, implementing their shutdown decision by inertia."
After a last-minute appeal was rejected last week, the Trump administration complied with Cooper's order to remove Trump's name from the building, but scaffolding remains in place covering part of the side of the building and obscuring the public's ability to see the absence of Trump's name as well as the continued presence of Kennedy's.
Plaintiffs pointed to the continued presence of tarped scaffolding, saying it "appears to be semi-permanent" because it has been fashioned to allow for pedestrian access beneath it, and lawyers for opponents said center leadership is "willfully sabotaging the Kennedy Center's iconic facade to assuage Defendants' vanity or massage broken egos."
A Kennedy Center official said earlier this week that the scaffolding would remain in place "as crews address maintenance needs of the marble and soffit panels."