A federal appeals court has declined to halt a lower court order preventing the Trump administration from keeping President Donald Trump’s name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts while litigation continues.

In a decision issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the Justice Department’s emergency motion to stay a district court injunction requiring the removal of Trump's name from the Kennedy Center’s facade and official marketing materials pending appeal.

The panel – Judges Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, both appointed by President Barack Obama, and Judge Gregory Katsas, appointed by President Trump – concluded that the government had not demonstrated that it would suffer irreparable harm absent a stay. 

The Justice Department argued that removing Trump's name would impair fundraising efforts and could require the Kennedy Center to return certain donations under its bylaws. The court found those assertions insufficiently supported by concrete evidence.

The dispute arose after the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, whose members were appointed by President Trump, voted in December to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”

In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the board lacked authority to rename the congressionally established institution. The Kennedy Center was created by Congress in 1971 as a “living memorial” to President John F. Kennedy, and Judge Cooper concluded that only Congress may alter its official name.

Judge Cooper’s order also temporarily barred the administration from proceeding with plans to close the Kennedy Center for two years of renovations while the litigation is pending. The lawsuit was filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), who serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board.

The D.C. Circuit’s decision leaves the injunction in place as the appeal proceeds on the merits.