A coalition of organizations filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order to remove “corrosive ideology” from national parks Tuesday, escalating the battle over displays about the nation’s history in parks around the country.
Led by the National Parks Conservation Association, the suit — filed in federal court in Boston — challenges Trump’s March 2025 executive order on “restoring truth and sanity to American history.” Under the order, parks across the country have altered or completely removed displays related to racism and slavery, sexism and LGTBQ+ rights, Indigenous communities and climate change, according to the lawsuit.
Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement that the litigation is “taking a stand for the soul of our national parks.”
“Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for,” Spears said. “As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”
