Topline
The Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for President Donald Trump to continue building his White House ballroom, likely ending the administration’s legal battle with historic preservationists to block the project.
Key Facts
The court ruled 5-4 to allow the project to continue, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court’s three liberal-leaning justices in a dissenting opinion that said the project was “likely unlawful.”
The five judges determined the National Trust for Historic Preservation did not suffer the personal harm necessary from the construction to support their lawsuit.
The justices wrote that “mere offense, disagreement, or distaste does not qualify as a concrete and particularized injury.”
The ruling upended lower court rulings that would have blocked construction from continuing on the grounds that the project required authorization from Congress to proceed.
The Supreme Court previously pushed back an Aug. 21 deadline imposed by a lower court to stop the project to consider the Trump administration’s appeal.
Crucial Quote
“We do not pass upon the legality of the government’s East Wing project,” the majority wrote. “We conclude only that, based on the submissions before us, the government is likely to prevail in showing that the Trust lacks . . . standing to challenge the project in federal court.”
Chief Critic
Roberts, writing for the justices in dissent, wrote that in ruling in Trump’s favor, “the court misconceives the plaintiff’s injury, allowing the Executive’s likely infringement of the Legislature’s power of the purse and authority to regulate federal property in the District of Columbia to continue.”
Key Background
The Trump administration has expanded the size of the project and its reasons for undertaking it since it demolished the East Wing shortly after Trump took office last year to make way for the 90,000 square-foot ballroom. The cost of the project has ballooned from the White House’s initial estimate of $200 million to at least $600 million, according to a June Washington Post analysis. The Trump administration has also argued the ballroom is necessary for security reasons, both to host events with world leaders and because it includes an underground bunker complex. It said in recent court filings that stopping construction now—when the ballroom is 65% complete—would be “dangerous” because it “would leave an unstable, unfinished 70-foot-tall structure on White House grounds.”
Supreme Court Lets Trump’s Ballroom Construction Continue—For Now (Forbes)
Trump Administration Says It Doesn’t Matter If People Think White House Ballroom Is Ugly (Forbes)
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Allow White House Ballroom Construction (Forbes)
Cocktails, Bomb Shelters, Very Strong Stone: Trump Raves About Ballroom As Crews Race To Build It (Forbes)
Read the full article here