WASHINGTON – A jazz musician is asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed against him after he canceled a scheduled performance at the newly renamed Trump Center for the Performing Arts, calling the legal action a politically motivated effort to punish him for his protest.
Attorneys for drummer Ulysses Reed filed a motion to dismiss on Friday, arguing the lawsuit from The Patriot Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy group with ties to the former president, constitutes a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Such suits are designed to intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their opposition.
The controversy began last month after Reed publicly withdrew from his headlining performance at the center’s annual jazz festival. In a statement at the time, Reed said he could not in good conscience perform at a venue bearing the name of Donald J. Trump, following the contentious 2025 congressional bill that renamed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The Patriot Heritage Foundation, which was a vocal supporter of the renaming, filed a civil suit against Reed shortly after, citing breach of contract and seeking unspecified damages for financial losses and harm to the venue’s reputation.
“This is not about a contract; it’s about retaliation,” a legal representative for Reed said in a statement. “Mr. Reed exercised his First Amendment right to protest. The lawsuit is a transparent attempt to make an example of him and chill dissent.”
The foundation has maintained that the case is strictly a contractual matter. “An agreement to perform is a binding commitment, and politics do not grant a license to break it,” a spokesperson for the group stated last week. Legal analysts note that the judge’s ruling on the motion to dismiss will be pivotal. If the case proceeds, it could become a high-profile test of the intersection between freedom of speech and contractual obligations in an intensely polarized political landscape. A decision is expected in the coming months.