In Court Case Where Bucks County Filed Brief, Judge Calls For Restoration Of Slavery Exhibit

After Bucks County and other collar counties filed a brief, a federal judge on Monday ordered the National Park Service to restore a slavery-related exhibit at the President’s House site in Philadelphia.

U.S. Senior District Judge Cynthia Rufe, a former Bucks County Court of Common Pleas judge, compared the federal government’s removal of the display to the state-sponsored “erasure” of history depicted in George Orwell’s “1984.”

Rufe, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush, granted the City of Philadelphia’s motion for a preliminary injunction and is requiring that federal officials reinstall all 34 educational panels and video exhibits that were removed from the Independence Mall site on Jan. 22.

“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary,” Rufe wrote, quoting Orwell, a dystopian novel that serves as a take on government control and totalitarianism.

The judge ruled that the government cannot “arbitrarily decide what is true” based on the “whims of the new leadership.”

The President’s House, which is located at 6th and Market Streets, served as the residence for George Washington and John Adams. The site commemorates the site’s history and the nine people enslaved by Washington who lived and worked there.

The legal dispute followed a March 2025 executive order by the president titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order directed U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to ensure public monuments do not “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” and instead focus on “greatness.”

Federal attorneys argued the government has the sole authority to choose its own message.

Rufe found the city likely to succeed on its claims that the removal violated the Administrative Procedures Act and was ultra vires, which means beyond the government’s legal authority.

The court determined that several agreements, which date back to 1948, require “mutual agreement” between the city and the federal government before making alterations to the park.

Rufe wrote in her decision that the city contributed approximately $5 million to unearth and maintain the site’s history.

The ruling comes after a wave of local opposition and national media attention.

Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties, which all have significant history tied to the founding of the country, filed a joint amicus brief arguing that the removal constituted an unlawful erasure of history.

“Attempts to erase evidence of our history do not heal the stains of the past – quite the opposite, they make us weak and vulnerable to repeating our failures,” Bucks County Commissioner Chairperson Diane Ellis-Marseglia said last week.

In the wake of the removal, the NAACP Bucks County Branch issued a statement of condemnation, the African American Museum of Bucks County called the federal action “nonsensical” and stated that society improves by remembering both “the good and the bad,” and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro filed a brief arguing the federal government’s actions undermined state sovereignty and federalism.

The preliminary injunction will remain in place pending further litigation or appeal.

Rufe’s order requires the National Park Service to restore the site to its status as of Jan. 21, which is before the displays were taken down.

The judge specifically cited the “Paradox of Freedom and Slavery” as a fundamental value of the park, noting that the site’s historical integrity is compromised every day the materials are missing.

“The government can convey a different message without restraint elsewhere if it so pleases,” Rufe wrote, “but it cannot do so to the President’s House until it follows the law and consults with the City.”

Bucks and the other collar counties were represented pro bono by Ballard Spahr LLP.