The National Trust for Historic Preservation asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to block the Trump administration’s ballroom construction while a legal challenge to the project plays out in court.
The filing is in response to an application from the Trump administration last week that asked the court to lift a lower-court ruling that would halt work Friday.
“Each court to examine the question has agreed that [the administration has] no unilateral legal authority — constitutional, statutory, or otherwise — to build a massive ballroom on the site of the now-demolished East Wing,” the filing says. “And each court has told [the administration] in no uncertain terms that they must stop their illegal construction unless and until they receive express approval from Congress.”
The National Trust argued that it and the public will suffer irreparable harm if the court lifts the injunction. It pointed to the administration’s assertion that the project would be almost impossible to take down once it’s completed, and said that is part of the administration’s strategy.
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“Petitioners make no secret of the fact that if the Court permits construction to continue, they will declare the case over,” the filing says.
The group also told the justices that the Trump administration would not be harmed if construction remained paused, since the project isn’t close to being finished. The administration previously estimated that construction would continue for roughly two more years.
The National Trust offered an expedited legal process to offset the administration’s concerns about a delay that would include Supreme Court oral arguments over the ballroom construction as soon as October.
The filing says that a few weeks of delay for “a project that will not be complete for years is far outweighed by the irreparable harm of the completion of a structure at the White House that Petitioners themselves assert will be ‘virtually impossible to deconstruct.’”
Should the court uphold the injunction, work could still continue on the underground military facility. A federal appeals court in D.C. stopped construction of the ballroom, but not the military complex that would exist beneath it.
That court ruled the ballroom couldn’t be built without congressional approval, which the administration has tried and failed to obtain.
In its application to the Supreme Court last week, the administration argued that the ballroom project — described in the filing as an “integrated military complex” that is “required for national security” — was necessary for the safety of the president, his family and administration staff.
Although the project’s initial description included a secure ballroom for events on the White House grounds, its scope has broadened into a drone hub with military infrastructure and facilities for the Secret Service.
President Donald Trump has continued to say that the entire project will be built by private donations. However, The Washington Post has reported that documents from a contractor said tax money will pay for roughly half of the $600 million ballroom project.
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