Trump admin seeks to block restoration of climate change, diversity info at historical sites
The Trump administration sought to block a court order to restore historical sites across the country ahead of America 250 celebrations on July 4.
The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service filed an appeal on Monday evening seeking a preliminary injunction to dismiss a judge's ruling the federal government must restore materials that were removed from historical sites and national parks across the country since May 20, 2025.
The appeal was taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. If granted, the injunction would stop the full restoration of historical markers, materials and sites before July 4.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department confirmed the appeal to ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.
"We fully believe politically charged language denigrating our Founding Fathers is inappropriate and only further divides Americans,” they said. “Through President Trump, we have encouraged Americans to visit our cultural and historic sites and engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country."
"By telling the full story, every triumph, every challenge and every step towards a more perfect union we strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here," they added.
According to U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley's ruling, by early 2026 NPS had removed or identified for removal hundreds of materials from park sites, including "dozens of signs related to climate change, civil rights, and diverse communities," which are listed in the ruling.
Kelley ruled Friday that the Interior Department, which oversees NPS, must restore within 21 days all materials removed from historic sites, casting the Trump administration's actions as "arbitrary and capricious."
"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 judge wrote in the order.
"Not only does this undermine the integrity of the National Parks; it sets a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization," Kelley added.
Notable changes outlined in the lawsuit include the removal of signs detailing the impact of climate change at locations like Glacier National Park in Montana and Acadia National Park in Maine; the removal of materials dedicated to the atrocities committed against Native American tribes at parks like Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and displays at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
The complaint also cites the removal of materials "involving slavery, abolition, immigration, labor, women's suffrage, and civil rights," including NPS's removal of the slavery exhibit at the President's House in Philadelphia.
The exhibit, which is located in Independence Hall, is an outdoor memorial that honors the lives of the nine enslaved Africans who were held there by President George Washington.
The removal of the exhibit, which took place in January, was also challenged in a separate lawsuit filed by the city of Philadelphia. The panels were partially restored in February following a judge's order, and in April a judge ordered NPS to preservice the "status quo" of the memorial as the lawsuit moves forward.
When asked about the exhibit's removal, a spokesperson for the Interior Department told ABC News that the move complies with President Donald Trump's March 27, 2025, executive order, which called for the removal of "divisive, race-centered ideology" and narratives from federal cultural institutions.
In the executive order, which is titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," Trump said his administration's goal is to remove materials from federal national parks and museums that cast the United States' "founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light."
Kelley's ruling on Friday stems from an ongoing federal lawsuit filed in February by a coalition of organizations committed to preserving history, scientific literacy and the conservation of national parks and the environment, including the National Parks Conservation Association.
"National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent," Alan Spears, National Parks Conservation Association's senior director for Cultural Resources, said in a statement following Kelley's ruling. "Americans count on national parks to help us understand our full, rich history. Stories of triumph and tragedy alike deserve to be told out loud at parks."
