New Delhi, Aug. 14 -- WASHINGTON - The board that governs the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted 20 to 3 on Wednesday to partially close the institution for up to two years and to rename it after Donald Trump, defying a federal court ruling that the same board did not have the legal authority to do so without an act of Congress.

The measure, proposed by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in a virtual meeting that Trump briefly joined, would rename the building "The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump" and designate its grounds as "President Donald J. Trump Plaza." The vote restores a designation a federal court ordered removed two months ago. The board had ap...