Federal Appeals Court Rules Trump Administration Can Remove Exhibits on Slavery, Climate Change from National Parks

A federal appeals court has handed the Trump administration a legal victory, pausing a lower court order that required the National Park Service to reinstall dozens of exhibits on slavery, civil rights, and climate change. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that advocacy groups failed to show irreparable harm from the removals, which were initiated under Secretary Doug Burgum's Order 3431. While District Judge Angel Kelley previously condemned the removals as government-sanctioned erasure, the stay allows the administration to continue reviewing and removing flagged displays.

First Circuit stay order

• ▪The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on July 2, 2026, put on hold a district judge's order requiring the National Park Service to reinstall removed exhibits on slavery and climate change
• ▪The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the plaintiff advocacy groups did not demonstrate they would suffer irreparable harm or specific, reputational, or membership-related harms from the exhibit removals

Trump exhibit removal policy

• ▪In May 2025, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum issued Secretary's Order 3431, instructing the National Park Service to review and remove displays that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living
• ▪The Trump administration's exhibit removals were prompted by a 2025 executive order titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History

Slavery exhibit removals

• ▪The National Park Service flagged more than 30 signs at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia and about 80 items along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail in Alabama
• ▪The National Park Service flagged for potential removal or alteration a reproduction of the 1863 image 'The Scourged Back' at Fort Pulaski National Park in Georgia

Climate exhibit removals

• ▪The National Park Service flagged a Great Smoky Mountains National Park plaque explaining how fossil fuels cause air pollution and an Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument booklet discussing endangered species
• ▪The National Park Service ordered the removal of interpretive materials describing climate change and the disappearance of glaciers at Glacier National Park in Montana

Administrative Procedure Act violations

• ▪U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley declared that stripping national parks of historical context constituted a government-sanctioned erasure and rejection of people's histories that degrades public trust
• ▪U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley ruled in June 2026 that the Trump administration's systematic removal of exhibits likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the National Park Service Organic Act, and the NPS Centennial Act

National park censorship

• ▪The National Parks Conservation Association and the Association of National Park Rangers filed a lawsuit in February 2026 against the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to halt the removals
• ▪Democracy Forward senior counsel Brooke Menschel stated that the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling was a temporary procedural setback and did not rule on whether the administration's actions are lawful