A D.C. Superior Court judge has dismissed a breach of contract lawsuit against musician Chuck Redd, who canceled a Christmas Eve performance at the Kennedy Center in protest of Donald Trump’s influence over the venue.
The ruling, issued on Friday, invoked Washington’s Anti-SLAPP laws, designed to protect free speech from meritless legal challenges.
Redd, a renowned drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Brown, had been a fixture at the Kennedy Center, hosting holiday “Jazz Jams” since 2006.
He withdrew from last year’s performance after the Kennedy Center’s board, appointed by Donald Trump, voted to add Trump’s name to the facility.
Lisa J. Banks, one of Redd’s attorneys, stated: “The Center sued Mr. Redd because he publicly and rightly objected to adding Donald Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, a living memorial to former President John F. Kennedy. The lawsuit against Mr. Redd was political retribution, pure and simple, by the Trump Kennedy Center, and the Court correctly saw it as such in dismissing the case with prejudice.”
In an email, Redd expressed his satisfaction, saying he was “very pleased with the judge’s ruling.”
The motion to dismiss, filed in March, successfully argued that Redd was not contractually obligated to perform, as the provided contract from the Kennedy Center was never signed by the artist.
Representatives for the Kennedy Center have not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit’s dismissal.
The move comes days after the Kennedy Center ordered employees to remove President Donald Trump’s name from the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts building and strip the president’s name from its website, signs, brochures and other material immediately, according to an internal memo obtained by the Washington Post.
A federal judge ruled that neither the president nor the Kennedy Center board of trustees has the authority to add his name to the Kennedy Center. The judge said only Congress had the authority to tack Trump’s name onto the center, which was initially named for former President John F. Kennedy.
