"Last month, federal employees descended on the President's House in Independence National Historical Park, a site overseen by the National Park Service (NPS) that once held the country's first presidential mansions. Following a Trump mandate to remove public displays that paint US history in a "negative light," officials dismantled the outdoor exhibition Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation."
""As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984 now existed, with its motto 'Ignorance is Strength,' this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims-to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts," Rufe wrote. "It does not.""
"Rufe extensively references the dystopian novel (1949) by George Orwell, comparing the Trump administration's actions in Philadelphia to the fictional Big Brother's Records Department, which identified and destroyed "all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded.""
Federal employees dismantled an outdoor exhibition, Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation, at the President's House in Independence National Historical Park after a Trump administration directive to remove public displays that portray U.S. history in a "negative light." The city of Philadelphia sued the National Park Service and Department of the Interior, alleging lack of authority to alter a city co-commissioned exhibition. A federal judge ordered restoration of the removed exhibits for the duration of litigation. The judge compared the removal to a Ministry of Truth from George Orwell's 1984 and rejected the government's claimed power to dissemble historical facts.
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