Nine members of the Kennedy family — including seven siblings of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — filed a motion Tuesday seeking to join the lawsuits challenging President Trump's planned 250-foot Triumphal Arch near Arlington National Cemetery, according to RedState.
The arch, proposed to mark America's 250th birthday, would stand outside the cemetery grounds. The Kennedy plaintiffs claim the structure would cast shadows over the graves of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and other family members buried at Arlington, and would spoil the historic views of the cemetery.
Among those seeking to join the suits are Kerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and former Rep. Joe Kennedy III. The family is represented by Norm Eisen, the former Obama ethics counsel who has become a prolific litigant against the Trump administration. RFK Jr. did not join his siblings in the effort.
The family's statement, quoted by RedState, framed the arch as an assault on self-government itself:
"A towering arch casting shadows across the graves of our father, mother, and uncles, as well as the graves of so many who have served our country, would also cast a shadow over our democratic principles, undermining the safeguards established by our elected representatives to protect this hallowed ground for generations to come."
How much shadow are we talking about? The Washington Post — hardly a cheerleader for this president — ran a 3-D shadow analysis of the arch last month, as RedState's Nick Arama reported. It found that on May 12, one of the days with the longest shadows, the arch would shade JFK's grave for a total of nine minutes, just after sunrise.
On most days, per the Post's analysis, the shadows would be gone before the cemetery opens to visitors.
The Washington Post promoted its own reporting on the dispute in a post on X, writing that the nine family members say the planned 250-foot structure "would wrongly cast a shadow on John F. Kennedy's grave site and other graves in Arlington National Cemetery." RedState flagged the family's filing in its own post on X linking to its coverage.
The filing lands in an increasingly crowded courtroom fight over the arch. Multiple lawsuits already challenge the project, and the Kennedy motion — if granted — would add a famous name and a family lawyer's pedigree to the opposition. It is not yet known when a judge will rule on the motion to join.
It also lands amid an ongoing family split. RFK Jr., confirmed as HHS Secretary in the Trump administration, has drawn years of public criticism from several of his siblings over his break with the family's Democratic lineage. Tuesday's filing marks the same relatives turning their fire on the president directly — and using the family's Arlington plots as the vehicle.
For the Trump administration, the arch is part of the broader America 250 commemoration, a 250-foot monument to the nation's founding built on federal parkland adjacent to the cemetery. The project's supporters argue the site was selected outside the cemetery's boundaries precisely to avoid intruding on the graves.
For the Kennedys, the suit raises the question of what the family is actually protecting: the sanctity of Arlington, or a political brand built on opposing this president.
Our Take
Let's get the facts straight. The Washington Post — the paper that spent years running interference for the Democratic Party — built a 3-D model of this arch's shadow and concluded that on the single worst day of the year, JFK's grave would be shaded for nine minutes at sunrise. Nine minutes. Before the cemetery opens. And the Kennedy family is treating this like the burning of the Constitution.
The same family that has spent the last several years publicly trashing one of their own — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — for the crime of serving in a Republican administration has now found a new target: a birthday monument. Seven of RFK Jr.'s siblings signed onto a lawsuit represented by Norm Eisen, the man who has made a career out of suing Donald Trump. This isn't about shadows. It's about a family brand that can't stand the sight of this president succeeding at anything — even a birthday party for the country.
And notice the phrasing: an arch casting a shadow "over our democratic principles." That's not a legal argument. That's a fundraising email. Arlington is sacred ground, and nobody is arguing otherwise — but the arch sits outside the cemetery walls, chosen precisely so it wouldn't intrude. If nine minutes of sunrise shade on a grave is now a constitutional crisis, then the Kennedys have officially run out of real things to complain about.
Patriots, here's the tell: when the same names, the same lawyers, and the same media outlets line up against a 250th birthday monument to America, it was never about the monument. Keep watching this courtroom — and remember in November who tried to sue the country's birthday.
