The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to prevent a lower-court injunction from halting above-ground construction of a planned 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, arguing the order improperly gives a district judge control over work tied to presidential security.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration has taken its fight over construction of a new White House ballroom to the Supreme Court, asking the justices Friday to allow the $400 million project to move forward despite lower-court rulings questioning whether President Donald Trump can build it without congressional authorization.
The emergency request follows an Aug. 7 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which voted 2-1 to uphold a preliminary injunction blocking above-ground work on the site of the former East Wing.
That appellate ruling has not yet taken effect, meaning construction is continuing while the Supreme Court considers whether to intervene.
The justices face an Aug. 21 deadline to act.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that allowing the injunction to take effect would give a single federal district judge excessive authority over construction decisions involving the White House and presidential security.
The order “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 wrote in the administration’s filing, according to NBC News.
The dispute began after the Trump administration demolished the White House East Wing last year as part of plans to construct a 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued over the project, arguing that the administration proceeded without obtaining authorization from Congress.
A federal district judge subsequently blocked above-ground construction twice while permitting underground work to continue.
The judge concluded that no federal statute gave Trump authority to undertake construction of the ballroom without congressional approval.
Trump appealed those rulings, but the D.C. Circuit on Aug. 7 left the preliminary injunction in place by a 2-1 vote.
The administration is now asking the Supreme Court to prevent that order from taking effect.
The legal fight centers not simply on the design or cost of the ballroom but on presidential authority over physical changes to the White House complex and whether Congress must first authorize a project of this scale.
The administration is also framing the matter as one involving security.
Sauer’s filing argues that the injunction could interfere with decisions about what construction is necessary to protect Trump, his family, White House employees and visiting foreign leaders.
The challengers, meanwhile, have argued that the project cannot proceed solely on presidential authority when Congress has not approved the construction.
The ballroom is planned for the area previously occupied by the East Wing and carries an estimated price tag of $400 million.
For now, work at the site has not stopped because the appeals court’s ruling has not become effective.
That leaves the project in an unusual interim period: the administration remains free to continue construction while the Supreme Court decides whether to preserve that status or allow the injunction against above-ground work to take force.
If the justices decline to intervene, the lower-court restrictions could significantly constrain construction while litigation over Trump’s authority continues.
If the Supreme Court grants the administration’s request, above-ground work could continue while the underlying lawsuit proceeds.
The court has until Aug. 21 to act on the administration’s application.
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