Trump asks high court to allow White House ballroom construction to continue
The Trump management requested the Supreme court to permit construction of the White House ballroom to continue after a federal appeals court ordered a halt until Congressional approval is obtained. The project involves rebuilding the East Wing, which was demolished last year for a new structure including a ballroom and enhanced security features. The National Trust for Historic Preservation had previously sued to stop the construction, leading to court rulings against the project. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the construction is vital for national security, framing the project as an “integrated military complex,” and criticized the lower court’s injunction as overreach that could threaten presidential security. The appeal came after a court panel ruled that Congress’s approval was necessary for the project to proceed. The controversy has drawn political and legal debates over presidential authority, security, and preservation aesthetics.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow construction on the White House ballroom to continue, after a federal appeals court said the construction must be halted until the federal government gets approval from Congress.
The East Wing of the White House was demolished last year to make way for a new structure that would include a ballroom and security improvements to the White House complex. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Trump administration last year to stop construction, and both a federal district court and federal appeals court sided with the group.
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Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to allow construction to continue, framing the project as an “integrated military complex” that is “vitally required by national security.”
“If allowed to go into effect, the injunction would wrongfully install a single district judge as sole arbiter of what further construction is ‘strictly necessary’ to protect the safety of the President, his family, staff members, and visitors to the White House, including foreign dignitaries, and presidents and prime ministers of other countries,” Sauer said, citing the various assassination attempts against President Donald Trump.
While construction on the new East Wing has not been halted since it began last year, under the Aug. 7 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, construction would have to stop on Aug. 21, barring action by the Supreme Court.
“Such an injunction ‘threatens the security and safety of the President of the United States,’ rests on glaring errors as to Article III standing, the merits, and the equities, and creates a needless inter-branch collision,” Sauer wrote. “In upholding it, a D.C. Circuit majority wrongly viewed the President as a mere ‘tenant’ of the White House with the district judge as his de facto landlord.”
“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception. The injunction is ‘judicial overreach … beyond the proper province of the federal courts,’” Sauer added.
The emergency petition to the Supreme Court comes a week after a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 to halt construction of the renovated East Wing. The panel told the administration it needed permission from Congress to go forward with the proposed ballroom and other renovations to the White House.
TRUMP MUST GET CONGRESS’S APPROVAL FOR WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM, DC COURT RULES
Trump’s proposed ballroom project has been met with uproar from Democrats and left-wing activists since it was announced last year. The preservationist group’s lawsuit is the main effort to stop the project.
While Trump had insisted the project would be fully financed by private donations, his administration attempted to secure federal funding from Congress for the security improvements to the White House complex as part of the East Wing project, but has been unsuccessful.
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