The exhibit displaying information about the slaves held at President George Washington’s home in Philadelphia will remain unaltered through at least the July 4th holiday weekend.
On Saturday, a federal judge denied the city of Philadelphia’s motion to recall an appeals court mandate that cleared the way for the Trump administration to replace interpretive panels at the exhibit.
However, the judge did grant the city’s request for more time to file its response in opposition to the mandate, which will delay federal government’s efforts to replace the exhibit.
Philadelphia has until July 7 at 5pm to file its response.
This comes one day after an appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can reinstall interpretive panels that critics say whitewash the history of slavery at the President’s House site.
The new educational panels were designed to replace ones put up in 2010 that told the story of how nine slaves lived in the home along with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.
People walk past an informational panel at President’s House Site Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Philadelphia. Matt Rourke
Their removal stemmed from Trump’s 2025 executive order calling for federally owned or controlled historic sites not to display information to “disparage Americans past or living” and to focus on the “greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
Friday’s ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit of Appeals, which is based in a courthouse across an intersection from the President’s House site on Independence Mall, was a technical one to allow implementation of a ruling made last month.
That ruling – by one judge Trump nominated, one nominated by former President George W. Bush and one chosen by former President Barack Obama – said a lower court was wrong to force the federal government to take down its new panels.
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The government asked Thursday for the go-ahead to put them back up, saying that the panels were ready to install and that they should go up “without further delay.”
The administration has said in court filings that its information also discusses slavery.
About half the previous panels were reinstalled earlier this year before a court ordered that work to stop.
ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
