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PHILADELPHIA — <\/span>Workers on Thursday began restoring an exhibit on the lives of the nine people once enslaved at the former President’s House in Philadelphia amid a contentious legal fight between the city and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Mayor Cherelle Parker visited the site Thursday morning and thanked the workers for their efforts, spokesperson Joe Grace said.<\/p>\n A federal judge had set a Friday deadline<\/a> for the Interior Department to restore the exhibit on the people enslaved by George Washington at the site on Independence Mall. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the restoration work, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The administration argues that it alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service<\/a> properties. Park service workers last month abruptly removed exhibits<\/a> from the Philadelphia site, prompting the city and other supporters of the exhibit to sue. <\/p>\n Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe on Monday granted an injunction ordering that the materials be restored while the lawsuit proceeds and barring Trump officials from creating new interpretations of the site\u2019s history. <\/p>\n In her 40-page opinion, Rufe compared President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to the totalitarian regime in the dystopian novel \u201c1984,\u201d which revised historical records to align with its narrative. She said the federal government does not have the power \u201cto dissemble and disassemble historical truths.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf the President\u2019s House is left dismembered throughout this dispute, so too is the history it recounts,\u201d Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWorse yet, the potential of having the exhibits replaced by an alternative script \u2014 a plausible assumption at this time \u2014 would be an even more permanent rejection of the site\u2019s historical integrity, and irreparable,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n