A coalition of historical and conservation groups filed suit Tuesday challenging President Donald Trump's executive order directing federal agencies to remove what it calls "corrosive ideology" from national parks.
The legal maneuver escalates a growing legal fight over how American history is presented at federally managed sites, Politico reported.
The lawsuit, led by the National Parks Conservation Association and filed in federal court in Boston, contests a March 2025 executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History."
The order directs agencies to review and revise park displays and programming deemed inconsistent with the administration's views of American history.
According to the complaint, parks nationwide have altered or removed exhibits addressing racism and slavery, sexism and LGBTQ rights, Indigenous communities, and climate change.
Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said, "Censoring science and erasing America's history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for."
He added, "As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country's triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth."
The suit names the U.S. Department of the Interior, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Jessica Bowron, the acting director of the National Park Service, as defendants.
Other plaintiffs include the American Association for State and Local History, Association of National Park Rangers, Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, Society for Experiential Graphic Design, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The groups are represented by Democracy Forward, which has brought multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration.
The lawsuit follows a ruling Monday by a federal judge ordering the reinstatement of an exhibit on slavery at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
The exhibit, located at the President's House site, detailed the lives of nine enslaved individuals who lived and worked there during George Washington's presidency.
In a 40-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe wrote that removing the exhibit distorted the historical record, stating, "Each person who visits the President's House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country's history."
An Interior Department spokesperson said on Tuesday that the department is appealing the move, The Hill reported.
"The National Park Service routinely updates exhibits across the park system to ensure historical accuracy and completeness," the spokesperson said in a statement.
"If not for this unnecessary judicial intervention, updated interpretive materials providing a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall would have been installed in the coming days."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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