Judge orders the immediate restoration of Philly’s President’s House slavery exhibit

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A judge has ordered the federal government to return the slavery exhibit to the President’s House Site on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall by Friday, escalating her earlier intervention in the contentious fight over retelling American history.

U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled Monday in favor of a preliminary injunction sought by the city of Philadelphia seeking to restore the panels depicting the lives of people enslaved by George Washington while he lived in Philadelphia as president.

In her Wednesday order, Rufe said the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service failed to comply “forthwith,” and she is now demanding that they restore the panels by 5 p.m. Friday. The administration has said it plans to appeal the ruling.

The park service removed the panels on Jan. 22 after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at preventing national parks and museums from displaying exhibits that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The panels, on display since 2010, detailed the lives of nine people enslaved by Washington while Philadelphia briefly served as the nation’s capital, and were part of a collaborative memorial effort involving the city, the NPS, local advocates and historians.

The city of Philadelphia swiftly sued the interior department and park service after the exhibit’s removal, arguing it violated long-standing cooperative agreements and federal law — including provisions tied to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act.

They sought a preliminary injunction requiring the exhibit’s return, which Rufe granted on Monday, Presidents Day. Rufe issued a preliminary injunction ordering the restoration of all removed panels and materials and barring further alterations without the city’s consent. She sharply criticized the federal government’s rationale for the removal, likening it to the fictional “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s “1984” as attempting to suppress historical information.

The Department of the Interior has not commented on whether it will comply with the most recent order.