President Donald Trump's name cannot be added to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts without approval from Congress, a judge ordered Tuesday.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, comes as the Kennedy Center Board plans to meet Tuesday afternoon to again consider closing the building for construction.
In August, the board voted to attach Trump's name to the performing arts center, in an attempt to honor the president after Cooper blocked an earlier effort to rename the Kennedy Center after Trump — and close it for renovations — in May.
"Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing," Cooper wrote Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex-officio Kennedy Center board member, in an attempt to prevent adding Trump's name from the center.
Beatty submitted draft resolutions introduced by the board over the weekend to close the performing arts center for two years, into the federal court record Monday.
"The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy — and no one else. But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial," Norm Eisen, a lawyer for Beatty, said in a statement. "The Court just rejected this proposal for the second time."
He added, "this unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump took over the Kennedy Center shortly after he returned to the White House, stocking the board with loyalists and assuming the chairship. His leadership saw backlash from some artists and theatergoers.
Trump said earlier this year he'd look to close the institution for what his administration has described as much needed renovations, but his critics charge it is really a ploy to hide struggles induced by his takeover.