A coalition is suing over President Donald Trump’s executive order to remove language and exhibits at federal parks and museums that “disparage” America.
The 60-page complaint in the case, filed by Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias’s group Democracy Forward, asserts, “Telling a more complete and accurate history, including that of African Americans, women, Indigenous people, Latinx people, LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants, may be attracting the most visitors” to national parks.
The complaint says that at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Arizona, a sign of someone holding a pride flag was removed.
The lawsuit further says that climate change materials were removed from Glacier National Park in Montana and Acadia National Park in Maine.
In March 2025, Trump signed the executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” to focus on the Smithsonian, Independence Hall, and other major parks and museums under the federal purview.
The executive order asserts the Biden administration “advanced this corrosive ideology” to “rewrite our Nation’s history.”
It noted, at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, “the prior administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates dismantling ‘Western foundations’ and ‘interrogating institutional racism’ and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist.”
In May, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a memo stating that improvements under the order would be complete by July 4, 2026, the official 250th anniversary of the United States.
The Burgum memo directs the department to “take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”
The coalition’s complaint in National Parks Conservation Association v. Department of the Interior was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, which could be a favorable venue for the plaintiffs.
Democracy Forward is a liberal litigation group that has filed numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration.
Elias, who has represented Hillary Clinton and most other high-profile Democrats in election litigation, is the chairman of the board for Democracy Forward.
Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said, “You cannot tell the story of America without recognizing both the beauty and the tragedy of our history.”
“The president’s effort to erase history and science in our national parks violates federal law, and is a disgrace that neither honors our country’s legacy nor its future,” Perryman said in a public statement.
“Secretary Order 3431 directed a review of certain interpretive content to ensure parks tell the full and accurate story of American history,” an Interior Department spokesperson told The Daily Signal. “This administration will continue to push back on efforts to use America’s National Parks as a tool to divide Americans which these groups are attempting to do.”
The spokesperson noted the National Parks Conservation Association raises money using our parks but said in the 2024 election cycle, 99.65% of the association’s employee political went to Democrat campaigns.
Funding for Democracy Forward has come from liberal groups such as the Center for American Progress, and the dark money group Arabella Advisors-managed Hopewell Fund.
“Democracy Forward is funded and run by far-left extremists who tried, but failed, to elect Hillary Clinton,” the Interior Department spokesperson added.
This story was updated to include comment from a spokesperson for the Interior Department.
