President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project has reached the Supreme Court. His administration asked the justices on Friday to let construction resume on the $400 million ballroom while it challenges a lower court order that stopped the work.
The request came after a divided three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled last week that Trump must halt construction because Congress did not approve the project. The panel’s majority said Trump lacked the power to move ahead on his own with the 90,000-square-foot ballroom planned for the site where the White House East Wing once stood before he ordered it demolished last fall.
The administration’s filing, submitted by the solicitor general, asks the Supreme Court to suspend the appeals court ruling while the case continues. The lower court put its own decision on hold for two weeks so the Trump administration could appeal, and the solicitor general asked the high court to act before the panel’s order takes effect on Aug. 21.
In the filing, the solicitor general described the case as involving what he called an extraordinary and unlawful injunction. He argued that the construction includes an integrated military complex and a secure ballroom space that is vitally required by national security. The administration is now seeking relief from the nation’s highest court while the legal fight over the project plays out.
