Judge cites Orwell's 1984, orders Trump to restore slavery exhibit

"As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984 now existed, with its motto 'Ignorance is Strength,' this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts. It does not."

That's U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, opening her ruling that ordered the Trump administration to put back a slavery exhibit it had torn from the President's House Site in Philadelphia, according to PBS NewsHour. The ruling landed on Presidents' Day.

The exhibit had stood for two decades at Independence National Historical Park, documenting nine people enslaved by George and Martha Washington during the 1790s, when Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. On January 22, the National Park Service sent federal employees with a crowbar to pry the interpretive panels off a cement wall. Only the engraved names remained: Oney Judge, Austin, Paris, Hercules, Richmond, Giles, Moll, Joe, and Christopher Sheels.

The administration justified the removal under an executive order about "restoring truth and sanity to American history" at federal sites. During January hearings, Rufe told Justice Department lawyers their arguments about the government's authority to choose which history to display were "dangerous" and "horrifying."

Two of the nine — Oney Judge and Hercules — escaped from the Washingtons in the 1790s. The government tried to erase their stories from the place where they were held in bondage.

Previously:
• National Parks visitors find better use for quisling QR code
• State Department is deleting all X posts from before Trump's return
• America the Bootlickable: Trump illegally defiles national park pass with his face