Supreme Court Gives Trump Temporary Pass for His Ballroom
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Supreme Court Gives Trump Temporary Pass for His Ballroom
President Trump’s ballroom building plans got a brief legal reprieve Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court said it would allow construction to continue on the $400 million White House addition, at least for now, while the full court considers the Trump administration’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling ordering a halt to the work.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued the temporary order, which permits work to continue on the former East Wing site, putting off an approaching deadline for the lower court’s ruling to take effect. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in a 2-1 decision in favor of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit, which challenged Trump’s authority to demolish the historic East Wing of the White House to make way for the 90,000-square-foot addition. The justices’ ruling additionally upheld an April ruling from a federal judge that underground construction on the site’s underground bunker and other national-security functions could continue.
“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the appeals court justices wrote. “This holding has nothing at all to do with whether the proposed ballroom is desirable, or not, as a matter of policy. This ruling does not even necessarily mean that the Defendants may not ultimately construct the ballroom. What it does mean is that the Defendants may not do so during the district court’s expeditious litigation without securing Congress’s authorization, as the Constitution and laws require.”
In their decision, the justices said they would stay their ruling for two weeks in order to allow the administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Trump issued his appeal soon after, lambasting the two justices who ruled against him and denouncing the order as a “horrendous, politically motivated, and unlawful ruling” that threatened national security.
Trump’s harsh rhetoric continued as he railed against the historic preservationists who challenged the ballroom construction, calling them “TREASONISTS” and accusing them of revealing military secrets in a wordy TruthSocial post.
“They are very bad for our Country. They stop many projects that are worthy, and hurt many others. In this case, they are trying to stop one that is vital to our National Security, and the Safety of all Presidents of the United States, both current and future, their families, staff, and Cabinet members,” he wrote.
The New York Times reported that the administration has sought to prove that the ballroom project has progressed too much to be halted now, submitting a filing that revealed that 250 workers are currently working 20-hour days every day of the week on the site and that construction is 60 percent complete. A Washington Post report revealed that Trump’s recent construction projects on the White House grounds — which include the ballroom, a revamp of the famed Rose Garden, and a brand-new helipad — have racked up at least $900 million in costs.
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