Questions about who controls the symbolic landscape of Washington have always carried weight. Now they are heading to court. A coalition of preservation and cultural heritage organizations filed a federal lawsuit Monday to halt construction of the National Garden of American Heroes, a sweeping sculpture garden planned for West Potomac Park.
The groups are challenging the Interior Department's plan to repurpose West Potomac Park, a green space dotted with cherry trees between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial, for a garden featuring 250 statues of the country's former presidents, civil rights leaders, artists, entrepreneurs, and military generals.
In 2025, the National Endowment for the Humanities launched a grant program for the design and creation of a sculpture garden featuring life-size statues of 250 "great individuals from America's past," spanning scientists, athletes, civil rights leaders, and performing artists. An executive order issued during Trump's first term included a list of approved historical figures, from the Founding Fathers to painter John Singer Sargent, Sacagawea, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as individuals who had died within the past 25 years, such as Kobe Bryant, Whitney Houston, and former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Within ten days of retaking the White House, Trump revived the plan. On January 29, 2025, he established the White House Task Force on Celebrating America's 250th Birthday and reinstated his 2020 order on the garden. In July 2025, Congress appropriated $40 million to the National Endowment for the Humanities to remain available through fiscal year 2028, "for the procurement of statues as described in" Trump's executive orders.
The legal challenge cuts to the heart of how federally protected civic space can be used. The lawsuit accuses the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service of ignoring a congressional decree that "no new 'commemorative work' shall be located within 'the great cross-axis of the Mall,' an area that includes West Potomac Park." At its core, the suit argues presidential intent cannot override legislative authority over the nation's most significant public landscape.
"Congress has made clear that the National Mall is a 'substantially completed work of civic art' — not a personal sandbox for each President to renovate however he likes," the suit states.
The groups argue that the planned siting violates the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, based on non-compliance with the Commemorative Works Act of 1986, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and other statutes. As stated in the complaint, the garden would feature "250 statues — each at least eight feet tall — set among reflecting pools, plazas, dining facilities, and an amphitheater, all of which will displace existing open spaces and recreational fields."
The Commemorative Works Act stipulates that a commemorative project "may not be authorized until after the 25th anniversary of the event, death of the individual, or death of the last surviving member of the group." That provision alone raises questions about several figures on the approved list.
"The National Register-designated West Potomac Park is not available open space; it is part of the National Mall, which is one of the world's finest achievements in civic landscape architecture, architecture, city planning, and art," said Charles A. Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation.
"Congress put clear laws in place to safeguard the National Mall from new construction and to ensure the public has a meaningful voice in decisions about landscapes that belong to them, as space open to all," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association.
The administration pushed back. "It is beyond comprehension why anyone would sue over an exhibition that celebrates American greatness by highlighting some of the most pivotal figures in our nation's history," an Interior Department spokesperson told ABC News.
The case now sits before a federal judge in Washington, and legal analysts say the lawsuit reflects growing pushback from preservation communities who argue the administration's renovation agenda has consistently sidestepped established legal processes. The ruling, whenever it arrives, will likely shape how much latitude future administrations hold over the country's most visible civic spaces.
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