Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty has filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after President Donald Trump.

Last week, the Kennedy Center Board, which includes a majority of Trump supporters, voted to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center. Beatty and several other Democratic lawmakers serve on the board under U.S. law.

The lawsuit contends that congressional approval is required to change the center’s name and alleges that board members attempted to silence Beatty when she opposed the decision. Beatty argues that Congress intended the center to serve as a "permanent memorial" to former President Kennedy.

The legal filing states: "In a move that emboldens authoritarians, the current president and his loyalists have named this historic center after President Trump."

In response, the White House told the BBC that President Trump has "restored the Kennedy Center by strengthening its finances, modernizing its buildings, and dismantling its divisive leftist ideology."