President Donald Trump tours ballroom construction around the outside of the White House, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
The Trump administration’s “striking admission” about the progress of Donald Trump’s East Wing ballroom project only shows the president is trying to “outrun judicial review,” so he shouldn’t be rewarded with a stay, an architectural historian and her organization told the U.S. Supreme Court.
A response in opposition from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and architectural historian Alison Hoagland, which met the deadline set by Chief Justice John Roberts, said the Supreme Court should not buy the DOJ’s argument that “nothing can be done” since the East Wing demolition already occurred and “accelerated” construction continued apace without congressional approval.
“Each court to examine the question has agreed that Petitioners have no unilateral legal authority — constitutional, statutory, or otherwise — to build a massive ballroom on the site of the since-demolished East Wing. And each court has told Petitioners in no uncertain terms that they must stop their illegal construction unless and until they receive express approval from Congress,” the group said.
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The Trump administration has argued that a stay is warranted because Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Leon and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had no business concluding that the National Trust and Hoagland had standing to sue on “aesthetic injury” grounds that somehow trumped the president’s determination that the “ballroom is necessary.”
Most recently, a 2-1 D.C. Circuit panel rejected the “bold assertion that the Executive can act with utter lawlessness, destroying treasured national landmarks and harming the interests of individuals, and that no court can stop it flouts our constitutional order.”
The National Trust urged the Supreme Court to agree that the administration’s “striking admission” about the progress of the soon-to-be “virtually impossible to deconstruct” ballroom “decides this application.”
The DOJ now claims the ballroom will “be substantially finished by November 2026” because aboveground construction continued, the group noted.
“Rather than obtain permission from Congress, Petitioners have instead decided to try to outrun judicial review. When the district court first enjoined ballroom construction in March 2026, above-ground work had not even begun,” the filing said. “It took the D.C. Circuit only four months to affirm the district court’s injunction — after highly expedited appellate proceedings during which the injunction was administratively stayed due largely to Petitioners’ assertions of emergency. While the D.C. Circuit deliberated, Petitioners accelerated construction, with a 250-person crew ‘working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week,’ in an effort to put their illegal ballroom ‘beyond … judicial intervention’ for good.”
When Judge Leon issued his injunction in April he blocked construction of the aboveground portion of the ballroom project while clarifying that belowground security work could proceed.
For the National Trust, the Supreme Court needs to deny Trump the stay he seeks and send the message that “nothing prevents [him] from asking Congress for [a ballroom] — today, tomorrow, or any time in the future.”
“But Petitioners’ efforts to foil judicial review and arrogate Congress’s exclusive powers should not be rewarded with a stay that allows Petitioners to complete a ballroom they lacked any authority to commence in the first place,” the filing concluded.
Amid reporting that hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars stand to fund the “national security” bunker, the DOJ told the justices that the ballroom is “funded with approximately $400 million in private donations by President Donald J. Trump and ‘some of the most prominent and successful corporations and people in America'” and that “zero taxpayer dollars are needed or required.”
The post ‘Striking’ DOJ ‘admission’ about President Trump’s ballroom ‘decides this application’ in architectural historian’s favor: Court filing first appeared on Law & Crime.
