Judge grants Trump reprieve after slavery exhibits have already been restored to Philadelphia Park

A federal appeals court judge on Friday granted the Trump administration a brief reprieve in its fight to remove slavery exhibits from the President’s House park in Philadelphia.

U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman suspended a lower court order requiring the slavery exhibits, which were removed in January, to be reinstated.

But the immediate effect is not clear.

National Park Service workers, rushing to meet the lower court’s 5 p.m. deadline, had spent Thursday and Friday restoring the exhibits.

Judge Hardiman’s ruling, while putting on hold most of District Judge Cynthia Rufe’s order, also said the cases should remain frozen as they were when he issued his new order.

“It is hereby ordered that appellants shall maintain the status quo with respect to the House of the President upon the effective date of this order,” he wrote Friday afternoon.

SEE ALSO: Slavery exhibit back at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall

That seems to indicate that the restored panels should remain in place – although the panels that had yet to be replaced are not needed for the time being.

His decision is a temporary band-aid. He ordered a quick schedule for more information.

President’s House preserves the home where George Washington and John Adams lived in the 1790s while the nation’s capital was temporarily Philadelphia.

It is a joint operation between the city and the National Park Service.

The Park Service in January, following an earlier executive order from President Trump, removed some signs and videos depicting the Washington family’s slaves living with him.

Philadelphia sued, and Judge Rufe, appointed by George W. Bush to the district court, issued a severe scolding of the government, likening the removal of the panels to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”

As for the legal arguments, she said the agreement between Philadelphia and the park service requires consultation before removing markers, monuments and memorials. She said the FBI likely broke that, prompting her to issue her order to restore the signs and videos.

Right Hardiman, appointed to the court by Bush, offered no opinion on his reasoning in his brief order Friday.