The Supreme Court Just Let the White House Ballroom Keep Going Up While the Case Is Still Open

Roberts Signed the Order

Chief Justice John Roberts signed a Supreme Court order on Friday, August 21, staying a lower court ruling that had paused construction of a new ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House.

The practical effect is immediate. Work that had been halted can proceed while the litigation continues.

This Is Not a Ruling on Whether He Can Build It

The order is an interim stay, not a decision on the merits. That difference is the whole story, and it is the part most likely to be misread.

The underlying legal question - whether a president needs congressional approval to put up a structure of this kind at the White House - has not been answered. The Court decided only that construction does not have to stop while that question is being litigated. The case returns to the lower courts.

What the Lower Courts Had Done

In March, Federal Judge Richard Leon ruled against the administration, ordering construction to stop except for work involving safety or security additions. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals then permitted temporary continuation, and Judge Leon subsequently clarified the boundary himself: below-ground work could go forward, above-ground construction could not.

Friday’s order from the Supreme Court set that structure aside for now.

Who Brought the Case

The plaintiff is the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization. Its argument after the stay was that allowing construction to accelerate effectively decides the case regardless of what any court says later, because a finished building cannot be unbuilt by a favorable ruling.

That is the tradeoff sitting inside an interim stay on a construction project. The legal question stays open while the physical facts on the ground stop being reversible.

The Money

Reporting on the project has put the cost at at least 300 million dollars, with some estimates running to roughly 600 million and about half of that attributed to taxpayers. The president has said publicly that taxpayers would not bear the cost.

Those figures are contested and come from reporting rather than from the Court’s order, which addresses procedure and not price.

What To Watch

The merits case continues in the lower courts. The question of congressional approval is still live, and a ruling against the administration remains possible. What has changed is that the ballroom will be further along - possibly much further - by the time that ruling arrives.

References: Supreme Court allows Trump’s ballroom construction to continue for now | Supreme Court temporarily allows construction of White House ballroom to continue | Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump ballroom construction to continue