The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major yet temporary win on Friday by allowing construction to continue on the White House ballroom for now.
The high court issued an administrative stay on its emergency docket, signed by Chief Justice John Roberts, allowing construction to continue on the ballroom. The stay will be in place as the Supreme Court continues to deliberate on an emergency petition from the DOJ seeking to lift a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that would have stopped construction of the ballroom project beginning on Friday. The Supreme Court could issue a firm ruling on that petition at any time.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the Trump administration last year to stop construction, and both a federal district court and a federal appeals court sided with the group. The ruling from the D.C. Circuit ordered construction on the East Wing renovations, including the ballroom, to stop on Friday, leading the administration to file an emergency petition to the Supreme Court last week.
The Justice Department cited national concerns in its argument for why the Supreme Court should allow construction to continue. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in his petition to the high court last week that the project included 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.
TRUMP ASKS SUPREME COURT TO ALLOW WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION TO CONTINUE
The preservationist group accused the Trump administration of trying to run out the clock on the lawsuit by speeding up construction on the project, which the preservationist group alleges in its filing to the Supreme Court is illegal.
Trump’s proposed ballroom project has been met with uproar from Democrats and left-wing activists since it was announced last year, as the president has continued to champion the project as a necessary upgrade for the White House complex. The preservationist group’s lawsuit is the main effort to stop the project.