Judge orders Trump administration to restore signs changed at national parks
A federal judge in Massachusetts has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate all signs that were replaced or removed at national parks across the country as part of President Donald Trump’s controversial directive last year.
harshly 63-page decision “This Administration, under the guise of extolling American dignity, seeks to share a limited history by ordering the removal of all signs, exhibits, and interpretive exhibits in National Parks that do not fit its preferred narrative, thereby telling half-truths,” Judge Angel Kelley wrote Friday.
Kelley, an appointee of President Joe Biden, ordered the restoration to be completed by July 3, ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday. The decision also prevented the Trump administration from making any changes to exhibits in national parks.
In a statement to CNN, an Interior Department spokesperson criticized Kelley for being a “liberal activist judge” and suggested the department could appeal the decision.
“The Department will look at our appeal options as we celebrate UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House this weekend in honor of our nation’s 250th anniversary with President Donald J. Trump, the greatest president in our nation’s history,” the statement said.
Friday’s decision comes as part of a process lawsuit filed In February, a coalition of conservationists and advocates spoke out against the Interior Department and National Park Service, accusing the administration of “waging a sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science.”
In March 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity in American History,” directing the Department of the Interior to “take action” against public content that “inappropriately disparages the past or life of Americans.”
Under the directive, at least 45 signs covering topics ranging from climate change to Native American history were replaced. Save Our SignsAn advocacy group that tracks changes to NPS screens.
A family reads signs about slavery at an outdoor exhibit at Independence National Historical Park on October 24, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. – Michael Yanow/NurPhoto/Getty Images
In one example cited in the February lawsuit and cited in Friday’s decision, a marker in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park that marked 19th-century explorer Gustavus Cheyney Doane’s role in the massacre of at least 173 members of the Piegan Blackfeet was removed.
At Fort Sumter National Monument in South Carolina, a sign detailing the impending impacts of climate change, including information about how “rising seas could submerge much of the fort walls and submerge the historic parade ground,” has been completely removed.
Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources for the National Parks Conservation Association, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit in February, celebrated Friday’s decision, telling CNN it was a “huge deal.”
“We think this is a good, positive, fair judge’s decision that puts an end, at least temporarily, to the sanitization, censorship, and softening of history as told in our national parks,” Spears said. He added that the decision will allow national park visitors to “get back to business as usual, which means getting the full scope of American history from our national parks and the interpretation they provide.”
Spears went on to describe national parks as “one of the nation’s greatest preserves of American history and culture.”
“When you start to deal with the kind of commentary that the park service can provide, that’s a problem because throughout history, especially over the last 30 years, they’ve been working to tell more accurate, fairer, more inclusive stories so that we can inspire more people to care about our parks, to care about the history of this country, to be better stewards of the land,” Spears added.
In his decision, Kelley similarly emphasized the educational role of national parks, describing them as “the cornerstone of public learning.”
“Often referred to as ‘America’s greatest classroom,’ National Parks serves in this spirit by telling the stories of both those who make history and those who remain unheard,” Kelley wrote. “The beauty of history is the simple storytelling of a time gone by and the delivery of undeniable truths.”
He added: “The Government’s stewardship of these parklands therefore bears responsibility for the history to be presented in full rather than preferred fragments. Unfortunately, the Government has ignored these principles.”
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