Federal Judge Orders Interior Department to Restore Removed Park Exhibits

A preliminary injunction puts the administration's discretion over museum-style displays inside federal parks before a federal court, with the outcome likely to define agency authority over...

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, appointed during the Biden administration, issued a preliminary injunction on June 13, 2026, ordering the Trump administration to reinstall exhibits related to slavery and climate change that had been removed from parks and monuments operated by the National Park Service under the Interior Department, according to reporting by the Washington Examiner.

The injunction was granted at the request of a nonprofit organization that argued, in filings before the court, that the Interior Department had carried out a systematic removal of interpretive displays across multiple federally managed sites. The group's court filings characterized the removals as a 'sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science.' Judge Kelley's written ruling adopted that framing in part, stating that the agency's conduct was undermining institutional integrity, according to the Washington Examiner's account of the order.

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A preliminary injunction requires the issuing judge to find, among other elements, that the plaintiff is likely to succeed on the merits and that irreparable harm would result absent relief, under the four-part test established in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 555 U.S. 7 (2008). The court record has not yet been cited in full by available sources, and the specific statutory or constitutional claims underpinning the plaintiff's complaint — whether grounded in the Administrative Procedure Act, the Federal Records Act, or another authority — are not confirmed in the source material reviewed for this report.

The Interior Department had not issued a public statement responding to the injunction as of the time of publication, according to available reporting. The administration retains the option to appeal the preliminary injunction to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, or to seek a stay of the order pending appeal, though no filing to that effect has been publicly reported. The full scope of which specific park locations and which exhibits are covered by the injunction has not been specified in available public reporting.

What remains unknown includes: the full docket number and court record of the underlying case, the complete list of sites and exhibits named in the injunction, and the Interior Department's formal legal response. The U.S. District Court docket for the District of Massachusetts — where Judge Kelley sits — would contain the full injunction text, the plaintiff's complaint, and any government response filed. Those records are publicly accessible through PACER.