Trump Asks Supreme Court To Allow His White House Ballroom Construction

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to lift a lower court order that will block above-ground construction on his White House ballroom project in one week.

In an emergency appeal filed with the justices Friday, the Justice Department argues that freezing the project at this stage will undermine national security and create an eyesore at the site where the White House’s East Wing stood until it was abruptly demolished last fall.

While the $400 million project was initially billed as an attempt to create larger permanent space at the White House for state dinners and other ceremonial events, Solicitor General John Sauer’s request for immediate Supreme Court action describes the under-construction facility as an “integrated military complex” needed to protect the president and national secrets.

“The knitted, unified, cohesive Project will address glaring security problems with the old East Wing and the White House grounds, as well as update them to serve the modern-day needs and security of all future Presidents,” Sauer wrote.

To underscore the urgency of Trump’s construction plan, Sauer cited “a growing number of recent assassination attempts” against Trump, among them the threat of an Iranian missile attack that led Trump to switch aircraft for a flight out of Turkey last month. Officials had not previously described that episode as an attempt on Trump’s life but rather a precautionary measure based on vague intelligence.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 last week that under federal law Trump needed explicit approval from Congress before undertaking the ballroom project. The appeals court’s majority upheld a district court judge’s injunction barring further above-ground construction but gave the administration two weeks to seek relief from the Supreme Court.

Sauer’s filing with the high court tracks closely with Trump’s public defenses of the project, including his rejection of the D.C. Circuit majority’s description of him as a mere “tenant” of the White House.

“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception,” Sauer wrote. “This Project, like its predecessors, should be a matter for the President and the political process, not construction-by-injunction.”

Sauer’s submission repeatedly invokes the dissenting opinion written by the sole Trump appointee on the D.C. Circuit panel, Judge Neomi Rao. She said the judiciary has overstepped its bounds in the case and is ill-equipped to make judgments about what parts of the work are strictly necessary for security.

The administration’s filing also echoes Rao in rejecting the legal standing of the group suing over the project, the National Trust for Historic Preservation. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, found the organization likely had standing based on claims from one of its board members, architect and historian Alison Hoagland, that the project would interfere with her enjoyment of the vistas surrounding the White House.

“The subjective displeasure of an offended observer does not amount to concrete injury,” Sauer wrote. He said the project is currently 65 percent complete and halting it in its current state would result in its own sort of aesthetic harm.

“No bystander could plausibly prefer to view an unfinished 70-foot-tall superstructure to the finished Project,” he wrote.

The emergency appeal will be handled by Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees such matters arising from courts in Washington. He ordered the group suing to respond to Trump's appeal request by Aug. 18. He will likely refer the issue to the full court for action.