DOJ Defends 3 Million-Pound White House Ballroom, Says Courts Cannot Halt It Even if Illegal
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Jun 5
DOJ Defends 3 Million-Pound White House Ballroom, Says Courts Cannot Halt It Even if Illegal
3 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Jun 5
Summary
A DOJ lawyer told a D.C. Circuit panel the Trump administration can keep building the White House ballroom and that courts should not stop the project even if it violates federal law.
Yaakov Roth argued the only remedy would be Congress, saying the project already has about 3 million pounds of steel rebar installed and serves presidential security as well as event needs.
Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia pressed the breadth of that theory, with Millett testing it by asking whether the government could bulldoze the Statue of Liberty before anyone could sue; Roth answered that it could.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation says the White House grounds are a national park that cannot be altered without congressional approval, and argues the ballroom's scale—after demolition of the East Wing—goes far beyond past unchallenged changes.
Construction has continued since the D.C. Circuit paused a March order that had halted the project, leaving the case to weigh presidential security claims against limits on executive control of federal property.