A handful of Washington preservation organizations are suing the Trump administration over President Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes — a massive outdoor complex planned to feature 250 larger-than-life statues of notable American figures.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that construction plans in West Potomac Park must be halted until Congress authorizes the project.
“The West Potomac Plan is unlawful. Congress has made clear that the National Mall is a ’substantially completed work of civic art’ — not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes,” the suit, filed on behalf of six groups and one Washington resident, reads. “To that end, Congress has decreed that no new ’commemorative work’ shall be located within ’the great cross-axis of the Mall,’ an area that includes West Potomac Park.”
The siting of new monuments is federally restricted by the Commemorative Works Act, which includes the Reserve, a no-build zone where placing new commemorative works is prohibited. Because the site falls within legally restricted federal parkland, the project would require an exemption under the act and congressional approval.
“This disregard for legal requirements is part of the same playbook the administration has used to pursue other recent vanity projects,” the lawsuit reads. “At every turn, the President and his administration have shirked congressionally required procedures, cut the public and groups with relevant expertise out of their renovation plans, and obfuscated the source of funding for these projects.”
The site where the memorial is slated to stand encompasses open green space and popular recreational fields between the Jefferson Memorial and the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. The park is home to the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
The plaintiffs, including the D.C. Preservation League, the Cultural Landscape Foundation and the Olmsted Network, argue that the project threatens to consume heavily utilized community parkland.
“Congress put clear laws in place to safeguard the National Mall from new construction and to ensure the public has a meaningful voice in decisions about landscapes that belong to them, as space open to all,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement.
The Interior Department, which is assisting in the management of the project, said that those suing either “hate America or are suffering from a severe case of [Trump derangement syndrome].”
“It is beyond comprehension why anyone would sue over an exhibition that celebrates American greatness by highlighting some of the most pivotal figures in our nation’s history,” Katie Martin, an Interior Department spokeswoman, said in a statement.
The plaintiffs asked a federal judge to block changes to the park absent congressional authorization and compliance with all statutory requirements.
The law says commemorative work honoring an event, individual or group cannot be authorized until 25 years have passed since the event, the individual’s death or the death of the last surviving member of the group.
Those on the sculpture list previously released by the White House include basketball player Kobe Bryant, singer Whitney Houston and civil rights activist Rosa Parks, all of whom have died within the past 25 years.
Aside from life-size statues of prominent Americans, the planned project includes gardens, reflecting pools and an amphitheater. It’s behind schedule, as sculptors have yet to be publicly announced.
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