A panel of federal judges is allowing construction to continue for now on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom while instructing a lower court that temporarily halted the project to seek more information on whether a pause poses a national security risk as Trump claims.
The three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit consists of Patricia Ann Millett, an appointee of President Barack Obama; Bradley Garcia, an appointee of President Joe Biden; and Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee.
Rao dissented, arguing that the plaintiff in the case, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit charged by Congress with helping to preserve historic buildings, lacked the standing to sue.
In its order issued Saturday, the panel instructed U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who in March ordered a halt to Trump’s planned $400 million project until the White House obtains approval from Congress, to clarify how his earlier ruling “will ensure safety and security pending litigation.”
The White House and the National Trust for Historic Preservation did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
In his March order, Leon allowed the administration to continue construction on the project until April 14 and said he would also permit further work to ensure “the safety and security of the White House.”
The Trump administration immediately appealed Leon’s order, saying that halting work on the project would imperil Trump, his family and White House staff.
The pause “gravely threatens national security,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a filing Thursday. They have argued that the planned 90,000-square-foot addition to the White House is being designed to defend against “hostile attacks via drones, ballistic missiles, bullets, biohazards” and other potential threats.
Trump has also said that the military was building a “massive complex” under the ballroom. The White House has declined to offer additional details about the underground construction beyond the president’s remarks, but it has long been known that the area underneath the former East Wing contains secure facilities that the president and staff members could use in an emergency.
In its order issued Saturday, the three-judge panel wrote that “it remains unclear whether and to what extent the development of certain aspects of the proposed ballroom is necessary to ensure the safety and security of those below-ground national security upgrades, or otherwise to ensure the safety of the White House and its occupants while the appeal proceeds.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has criticized the administration’s national security claims and cited the White House’s shifting arguments about whether the aboveground ballroom and the below-ground military project must be constructed concurrently.
“It is difficult to believe that even Defendants really think the absence of a massive White House ballroom jeopardizes national security,” lawyers for the National Trust for Historic Preservation wrote in a filing Wednesday.
In her dissent issued Saturday, Rao argued that the federal government “has demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits because the National Trust for Historic Preservation lacks standing to sue and because the construction project is authorized by a statute that allows the President to undertake ‘improvement[s]’ to the White House.”
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