Kennedy Center to Cover $250,000 Legal Fees of Jazz Musician Who Protested Trump Takeover
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A federal judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to cover more than $250,000 in legal expenses for jazz musician Chuck Redd following the dismissal of a lawsuit the institution filed against him. The Kennedy Center had sued Redd for breaking a performance contract after he withdrew from hosting his longstanding annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam in late 2025. Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ruled the lawsuit lacked merit because Redd had never actually signed a contract for the 2025 event and determined the legal action constituted retaliation for his protected political opposition.
Redd's decision to cancel his performance was part of a musician-led protest against the Kennedy Center's recent name change to include Trump's name, which followed the president's appointment of allies to the institution's board. The court invoked Washington D.C.'s Anti-SLAPP statutes, which shield individuals from lawsuits designed to suppress free speech and civic participation. The decision arrived shortly after a separate federal court ordered the removal of Trump's name from the Kennedy Center's facade, effectively undermining the premises of the institution's legal action.
- Washington D.C. court orders Kennedy Center to pay $252,480 in legal fees to jazz musician Chuck Redd after dismissing the institution's breach-of-contract lawsuit against him.
- Redd had cancelled his annual Christmas Eve performance to protest the Kennedy Center's renaming following Trump's takeover of the board; the judge found no valid contract existed and the suit appeared retaliatory.
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Redd, a jazz musician, had performed his annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam at the Kennedy Center for many years. Late in 2025 he pulled out of the show as part of a wider protest by musicians against the venue's decision to add Donald Trump's name to its title, a change that followed the president placing his own allies on the centre's governing board.
The Kennedy Center responded by suing Redd for breach of contract over his withdrawal. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit, finding that Redd had not actually signed a contract for the 2025 performance and that the legal action amounted to punishing him for taking part in a protected political protest, a type of case that laws designed to stop lawsuits used to silence critics are meant to prevent.
The dispute sits within a broader row over the Kennedy Center's direction since Trump's allies took control of its board, including separate legal action over the renaming itself. It matters because it touches on questions of free expression for artists, the use of courts to respond to political protest, and control over one of Washington's best-known cultural institutions.
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