WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday cleared President Trump to keep building a $400 million ballroom on the site of the demolished White House East Wing, ruling 5-4 that the preservation group challenging the project lacked standing to sue and lifting lower-court orders that had tried to halt above-ground construction.
The unsigned emergency order handed the administration a victory in a case the Justice Department told the justices had passed the point of no return, with a 250-person crew working 20 hours a day, seven days a week and the 90,000-square-foot superstructure already 65 percent complete. Chief Justice John Roberts joined Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in dissent, writing that construction is "likely unlawful" because Congress has not authorized the project.
What the court decided
Without deciding whether Trump can build the ballroom over Congress's objection, the majority held that the National Trust for Historic Preservation had likely failed to show a concrete injury sufficient to sue in federal court. "This Court has not found standing in circumstances like these before," the five justices wrote, adding that "mere offense, disagreement, or distaste does not qualify as a concrete and particularized injury." The order credited sworn declarations from the director of National Intelligence and the heads of the Secret Service, Army and State Department, who told the court that any significant pause would harm national-security facilities being built beneath the site.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer had told the justices the case involved "an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex." The concrete-and-steel superstructure now rises up to 70 feet in places, extends five stories below ground and covers a nearly 50,000-square-foot footprint, Sauer wrote. Joshua Fisher, director for White House Management and Administration, said in a declaration that $335 million of the $400 million cost has been raised from private donors.
The dissent
Roberts, writing for the four dissenters, said the Trust member whose declaration anchored the suit — preservationist Alison Hoagland, who sits on the group's board and visits the neighborhood monthly — had described injuries enough to open the courthouse door. "The White House is not just any building, and — when it comes to historic preservation — Hoagland is not just any person," Roberts wrote. He said the majority had allowed "the Executive's likely infringement of the Legislature's power of the purse and authority to regulate federal property in the District of Columbia to continue," and concluded: "Today's decision is no victory for the separation of powers."
Trump, who ordered the East Wing demolished last autumn to make room for the project, celebrated the ruling on Truth Social. "We are living in the Golden Age of America, and this Building will be one of the Greatest ever constructed in Washington, D.C.," he wrote. On Friday, the president had called the Trust "treasonists" and accused them of revealing "top military secrets."
The Trust's response
Brent Leggs, president and chief executive of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said the group "respectfully disagree with the majority's opinion on standing" and stressed that the justices "did not weigh in on whether the ballroom project was in fact legal." A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had ruled that Congress has "full constitutional control over federal property and the funding of its maintenance and development," finding an "absence of any express or implied authorization" that grants the president the ability to construct the ballroom. Monday's stay leaves that merits question for another day.
The White House said the ballroom will be "substantially" finished by November and fully completed by August 2028, when Trump will have five months left in his term. Monday's order is the second in eight days to favor the president on an emergency application, following the court's Aug. 25 ruling clearing his mail-voting executive order to take effect for the Nov. 3 midterm elections.