An effort to put President Donald Trump's name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was paused on Thursday after a federal judge asked officials to delay the placing of the signage while he considered a legal challenge from Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex officio board member who is suing the center. 

The center had planned to add a sign reading "renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump" as early as Sept. 8. Judge Christopher Cooper had previously ordered the president's name removed, citing a 1964 law dedicating the memorial strictly to Kennedy, the New York Times reported. 

At a hearing Thursday in Federal District Court in Washington, Judge Cooper told Justice Department lawyers that he will have to issue a ruling blocking the center from moving forward unless the center delays adding the inscription. 

Beatty's lawyers argue that it would be in “outright defiance” of Judge Cooper’s order to put Trump's name on the building. 

The Justice Department argues that nothing in the law prevents the board from naming the plaza or acknowledging major donors. Trump’s name is drawing in donations in support of the center, and without it, “the Kennedy Center cannot be saved,” it said in court papers.