Judge dismisses Kennedy Center suit against Chuck Redd under Anti-SLAPP laws

A D.C. Superior Court judge threw out the Kennedy Center’s breach-of-contract case against Chuck Redd, finding the dispute fit Washington’s Anti-SLAPP law, which is designed to stop lawsuits that chill speech on matters of public interest. The dismissal landed a sharp rebuke to a prominent arts institution that had tried to turn a canceled performance into a damages claim.

Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Brown, had led the Kennedy Center’s holiday Jazz Jams for about 20 years, starting in 2006. He canceled his Christmas Eve performance after Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board voted to add Donald Trump’s name to the building, and after the name appeared on the venue’s website and then on the building itself. In an email, Redd said he felt “profoundly uncomfortable” performing there.

His lawyers argued that Redd never signed the contract the Kennedy Center presented for the free public concert and that the institution had no economic damages to recover. They also said the lawsuit was political retaliation. According to Redd’s legal team, the judge dismissed the case with prejudice, a ruling that bars the Kennedy Center from filing the same claim again. Redd said he was “very pleased” with the outcome.

The case grew out of the broader fight over Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center and the push to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The venue was created by Congress as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, and critics including lawmakers have said any renaming would require congressional approval. That backdrop made the dispute about far more than one canceled holiday show: it became a test of how far a major cultural institution can go in suing an artist who refuses to perform after a politically charged change.

Before the dismissal, Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell accused Redd of a “political stunt” and threatened to seek $1 million in damages, saying the cancellation had hurt the nonprofit arts institution. He also called the withdrawal “classic intolerance” and said it was costly for the center. The Kennedy Center did not immediately comment after the ruling, leaving the dismissal to stand as a warning sign for future artist-booking conflicts when contract disputes collide with public speech and political pressure.