Court Decision Allows Controversial Historical Panels in Philadelphia

An appeals court decided on Friday that the Trump administration can reinstall interpretive panels at the site of President George Washington’s house in Philadelphia. Critics argue that these panels misrepresent the history of slavery. The area in question is where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.

The National Park Service, which was contacted for comment, has yet to respond. The new educational panels are set to replace those installed in 2010. The previous panels detailed the lives of nine slaves who lived with George and Martha Washington in the home during the 1790s, when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital.

The removal of the earlier panels followed Trump’s 2025 executive order. This order instructed federal historic sites to avoid content that might ‘disparage Americans past or living’ and to focus on American achievements. The ruling from the U.S. 3rd Circuit of Appeals was technical, aiming at implementing a decision from the previous month. This ruling came from three judges, each nominated by different presidents: Trump, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. The judgment reversed a lower court’s order that required the federal government to remove the new panels.

On Thursday, the government requested authorization to reinstall the panels immediately. They stated in court documents that the new panels also address slavery. However, there have been ongoing concerns from advocates, academics, and officials that the new version could dilute the painful aspects of America’s history, presenting a more glorified narrative.

Images on a government website indicate that the new panels will still contain information about enslaved individuals who lived at the house. They will also cover the abolitionist movement, how the Constitution addressed slavery, the abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania, and perspectives of Washington and his successor, John Adams, on slavery. Additionally, the panels will include information on the 20th-century Civil Rights movement.

However, the new panels lack some details present in the previous versions. These older panels included a map of slave trade routes and a timeline on slavery. They also featured headlines like ‘The Dirty Business of Slavery.’

The City of Philadelphia has opposed the removal of the earlier panels and is seeking to delay the new installation. On Friday, the city requested the appeals court to reconsider its order to allow time to respond to the administration’s recent request. Philadelphia argued that reinstallation would harm the site, which holds significant historical value and has been developed through years of federal and local collaboration to narrate an important and long-ignored story.

Nearly half of the earlier panels were briefly reinstalled earlier this year before a court intervened to halt the work.