President Donald Trump’s administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to allow construction of the White House to continue its $400 million ballroom project while it appeals a lower court’s order to stop work.
Trump’s attorney general asked the Supreme Court to stay last week’s decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Chief Justice John Roberts gave the plaintiffs a Tuesday deadline to respond to the challenge to the ballroom project.
The divided appeals court ruled last week that Trump must Stop construction of the White House Ballroom because Congress did not approve the project. The majority of the panel said Trump did not have the unilateral authority to build an 8,400-square-foot ballroom where the East Wing of the White House stood before his order its demolition last fall.
The lower court suspended its own ruling for two weeks to give Trump’s Republican administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Attorney General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to rule on his request for a stay before the appeals court’s decision takes effect on August 21.
“This case seeks an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt ongoing construction of the integrated military complex, including a fully secure ballroom in the East Wing of the White House, which is essential to national security,” Sauer wrote.
Friday’s court filings contain the government’s first confirmation that a threatened missile attack on Air Force One prompted the Secret Service to do so secretly fly Trump left Turkey last month on an alternative military aircraft. As an argument for the need for a secure ballroom, the filing cites “the threat of a missile attack on Air Force One on July 8” in a list of recent assassination attempts against Trump.
The filing also states that the project is “on schedule and under budget” with about $400 million in private donations coming in, meaning no taxpayer money needs to be spent. However, Democrats in Congress have said it appears that funds from Trump’s ” big, beautiful “Tax cut legislation appears to be funding the ballroom work. The administration has also requested additional funding from Congress for the project, but lawmakers have not agreed to it.
In April, a district judge ordered a halt to above-ground construction of the proposed ballroom. However, the judge emphasized that the White House was free to continue with underground work, including the construction of bunkers, military facilities and medical facilities.
The DC Circuit panel’s 2-1 decision was affirmed a command to pauseto carry out above-ground construction work on the project and to side with the preservationists who had sued to stop construction of the ballroom.
“Whether or not a giant ballroom should be built is a matter for Congress to decide and is not a matter for executive branch self-help,” wrote the two majority justices, both appointed by Democratic presidents.
A third judge disagreed, finding that the preservation group that challenged the project had no legal right to sue.
“The district court highlighted an individual passerby’s aesthetic displeasure with the government’s security interests in the ballroom,” Trump-appointed Judge Neomi Rao wrote.
The Trump administration argues that the president, not Congress or the courts, has full authority to renovate the White House. The current status of the project, essentially an open construction site, makes it more difficult to protect the White House, the Justice Department claims.
The government also says the National Trust for Historic Preservation has neither the legal right nor authority to sue over the ballroom, part of Trump’s plans to do so quickly New edition of Washington. The attorney general said the ballroom project “should be a matter for the president and the political process, not construction by injunction.”
In response to the petition, the trust accused the White House of trying to “evade the courts” by speeding up construction, citing the administration’s plans to install 1 million pounds of rebar and pour another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete in the next week alone.
“The government’s blatant efforts to circumvent the rule of law, thwart judicial review, and limit the availability of meaningful remedies in court must stop here,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.
During an appeals court hearing in early June, a government lawyer defended a broad view of presidential control over iconic public institutions. The government could raze the Statue of Liberty and the White House, Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth said in response to a hypothetical question, and the descendants of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and the enslaved people who built the White House would have no standing to sue.
The D.C. Circuit panel upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush. Leon concluded that a pause would not jeopardize national security. He also exempted all construction work necessary for the security of the White House.
The ballroom has been under construction for 10 months. According to the administration, the work is about 65% complete.
“Given these developments, the injunction promises chaos in the service of nothing,” Sauer wrote.