Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges, plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the installation of a memorial plaque for law enforcement who responded to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, have argued this week that their case should not be dismissed.
In a filing submitted after the court asked whether the case had become moot, the plaintiffs stated that staff for the Architect of the Capitol placed the long-delayed plaque on March 7 in a temporary location inside the Capitol that is closed to the public. The plaque was positioned “at the end of a hallway” near a ground-floor entrance on the building’s West Front.
According to their filing, this placement violates a 2022 law requiring the memorial be displayed on the Capitol’s “western front,” which they interpret as the exterior terraces where visitors can view it. They also noted that the plaque’s installation came roughly three years after the statutory deadline.
The lawsuit, filed in June 2025 by several Capitol Police officers and advocacy groups, seeks to compel the Architect of the Capitol to install the plaque in a visible public location on the building’s exterior. Plaintiffs claimed congressional leaders had delayed or blocked its installation for years.
The disagreement over the plaque is tied to broader political disputes about how the Jan. 6 protest should be remembered. The protest occurred as supporters of President Donald Trump entered the Capitol in an effort to voice their objection to Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Debate over the memorial intensified after Trump, during his current term, issued pardons to most of the Jan. 6 defendants who had been convicted or charged with lower-level offenses such as trespassing or unlawful entry. Critics say those pardons and opposition to the plaque reflect efforts to downplay the violence against police officers that day.
In their new filing, the plaintiffs asserted that the plaque’s current placement effectively keeps it “hidden from the public” and does not satisfy the legal requirement for a memorial on the Capitol’s western exterior. They also argued that government officials themselves have acknowledged the installed plaque may not meet the statute’s requirements.
Court filings previously suggested the law could require listing thousands of individual officers, rather than the law enforcement agencies currently named on the plaque. Without continued court oversight, the plaintiffs said the memorial could remain out of public view indefinitely. The court has not yet ruled on whether the case will proceed.
