A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore exhibits and materials at national parks that were removed under a presidential directive targeting displays the administration deemed disparaging to America.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, based in Massachusetts and appointed to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden in 2021, issued a preliminary injunction Friday. The order requires the administration to reverse the removals and pause any further changes while legal challenges proceed, according to Fox News.
The ruling covers materials including an exhibit at Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park describing George Washington's ownership of enslaved people, and signage detailing climate threats at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Both were removed under direction from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Trump signed the executive order, titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," on March 27, 2025. The order directed the Interior Department to ensure that US government descriptions and depictions do not inappropriately disparage Americans past or living, and instead put focus on what the order called the greatness of America. Trump said he issued the directive because of what he described as a false reconstruction of US history that had taken hold after the race riots of 2020.
The Interior Department called Kelley a "liberal activist judge" in a statement and said it was reviewing its options to appeal. Burgum previously described the removed materials as "improper partisan ideology."
In her ruling, Kelley wrote that the plaintiffs had shown the administration's actions were meant "to rewrite the Nation's history with a white-out pen." She also wrote that removing the materials set a "dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization." The judge added: "Under the guise of promoting American dignity, this administration seeks to share a limited history by ordering the removal of all signs, displays, and interpretive exhibits at National Parks that do not align with its preferred narrative, thereby telling half-truths."
The ruling also requires the administration to file weekly status reports detailing its progress in restoring the affected materials.
The timing puts the administration in a difficult position. The America 250 celebrations, marking the 250th anniversary of the country's founding, are building toward a crescendo on July 4. National parks are central gathering places for those events.
The Interior Department has not said publicly how it will respond to the order beyond stating it is reviewing its appeal options.
