Court: Trump Can Install New Signs at Washington’s Home, Replacing Slavery Exhibit

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Trump administration can put up new educational signs at the site of President George Washington’s former home in Philadelphia. The signs will stand in the same area where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. The new panels replace ones installed in 2010. Those older signs told the story of nine enslaved people who lived in the home with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital. The removal of the old signs came after President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order. That order said federally owned historic sites should not include information that “disparage(s) Americans past or living.” Instead, the order said, the sites should focus on “the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.” Friday’s ruling came from a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The courthouse is located across an intersection from the President’s House site. The ruling was a technical step to allow the government to put up the new signs. The same judges had ruled last month that a lower court was wrong to force the government to remove the new panels. The Trump administration asked the court on Thursday for permission to install the signs “without further delay.” The administration has said in court filings that its new information also discusses slavery. The City of Philadelphia is trying to stop the installation. The city sued after the old signs were removed. On Friday, Philadelphia asked the appeals court to recall its order, at least long enough for the city to respond to the administration’s request. Philadelphia said in its filing that the site is of “exceptional importance” to the city and the nation. It said the site was developed through years of federal and local teamwork to tell a “historically significant and long-suppressed story.” About half of the original panels were put back up earlier this year before a court ordered the work to stop.