Today, AASLH and a coalition of parks, science, and design groups filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary’s Order 3431, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” This order, like the identically-named 2025 executive order it was designed to implement, promotes an incomplete and deceptive vision of American history and has resulted in the removal of content at National Park Service sites across the country. The orders are also casting a chilling effect over the broader history field, as organizations nationwide face pressure to change content for fear of political backlash.
AASLH is joined in the suit by co-plaintiffs the National Parks Conservation Association, Association of National Park Rangers, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Society for Experiential Graphic Design, and Union of Concerned Scientists. This coalition is represented by Democracy Forward. Read Democracy Forward’s press release about the lawsuit here.
The implementation of these federal orders has led to the erasure of historical narratives rooted in decades of the history field’s scholarship and best practices, including community collaboration. In so doing, the orders undermine the expertise of history practitioners, damage trust in history institutions and sites, and limit the American people’s ability to draw connections between past and present and to think for themselves—skills essential to a functioning democracy. In joining the lawsuit, AASLH affirms its commitment to promoting public engagement with a fuller, unvarnished story of America in which everyone sees themselves and to the right of history practitioners to conduct their important work free from government intimidation.
Time and again, the public has demonstrated its desire for the entire American story in all of its complexity. Now, as the administration rapidly distorts that story in ways that can only divide us, we must stand up for the history field and make our collective will known.
AASLH’s efforts to champion the history field are made possible by the generous support of the history community. Become a member of AASLH or donate today.
