PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 18, 2026, that the Trump administration can replace the interpretive exhibit at the President's House Site in Philadelphia. A three-judge panel stated on July 3, 2026, that the administration could install new panels at the site.

This ruling followed the National Park Service's removal of 34 explanatory panels from the President's House Site on January 22, 2026. The removed panels detailed the lives of nine enslaved Africans who served George Washington when Philadelphia was the U.S. capital in the 1790s. Approximately half of these removed panels are currently in storage.

The federal government stated the exhibit disparaged historical American figures. The city of Philadelphia and activists argued the exhibit told the full story of the U.S.'s founding. The city filed a lawsuit against the federal government regarding the panels' removal. On February 16, 2026, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe ordered the government to restore the exhibit, and the National Park Service reinstated about half of the panels following this court order.

The federal government appealed the restoration order to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Following the July 3 ruling that permitted new panels, the city filed another appeal and a motion for a stay.

Michael Coard, an attorney who founded the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition in 2002, said that he was initially pleased with the restoration. "Everything was great until it wasn't," Coard said. He also noted that the administration's actions stimulated an alliance among groups. "As soon as he threatened to shut it down, we've actually created an alliance that I know we could not have put together had it not been for Trump attacking the site," he said.

Gwen Ragsdale, executive director of the Lest We Forget Museum of Slavery, expressed her concern about the removal. "I was very disturbed by [the removal], because the President's House represents a period of American history, and I always remind people that this is American history, not Black history," Ragsdale stated.

The enslavement memorial at the President's House Site opened to the public in 2010. Old City Remembers, a volunteer group founded by Matt Hall, has had more than 100 volunteers stand at the site with information about the removed exhibit nearly every day. These volunteers read the text of the original panels aloud to passersby.