President Donald Trump’s administration insisted that there would be “national security implications” if the new White House ballroom was not built immediately.
In a motion opposing an injunction to halt the building of a massive White House addition, attorneys for the National Park Service warned there could be “an emergency situation” if the project were paused.
“Defendants have strong arguments for appeal, and the equities and public interest weigh overwhelmingly against suspending construction in the interim,” the motion stated.
Defendants’ attorneys warned that stopping ballroom construction would “leave an unsightly excavation site in President’s Park indefinitely.”
They also said that “halting construction would imperil the President and others who live and work in the White House.”
According to the defendants’ attorneys, the ongoing construction was “a hazard and complicates Secret Service operations.”
“While Plaintiff has suggested that the Court could allow construction that is necessary for national security to continue, it is unworkable to distinguish between construction elements that are national security-related and those that are not,” the attorneys claimed.
“This Court should stay any preliminary injunction pending appeal,” the motion concluded. “The D.C. Circuit should have the opportunity to weigh in on these significant and novel issues of first impression before the President is ordered to stop work in the middle of a high-priority construction project that implicates national security, particularly at the behest of a third party with no legally cognizable interest in the White House grounds and no applicable cause of action to intrude into this novel matter of inter-branch relations.”
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