WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Trump to finish building his new White House ballroom with mostly private money and without approval from Congress.
By a 5-4 vote. the justices granted an emergency appeal from Trump and his lawyers on Monday and set aside a judge’s order that would stop the construction.
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. dissented, along with the court’s three liberals.
The outcome turned on standing.
The conservative majoritysaid the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its members were not personally injured by the White House ballroom project and therefore, did not have to standing to sue Trump or the National Park Service.
They also said Trump and his appointees had stressed the new ballroom was needed for national security and said the lower courts judges should not have interfered.
The decision in effect gives a green light to Trump’s go-it-alone approach which is in keeping with his history as a hotel builder. He believed the White House needed a grand ballroom that could seat hundreds of dignitaries. And he ordered the East Wing torn down in October to make room of his larger ballroom.
He also said most of the project would be paid for by $400 million in private donations.
But the Constitution gave Congress the power to manage property belonging to the United States. A 1912 law says new buildings “shall not erected…on public grounds within the District of Columbia without express authority of Congress.”
Trump chose to ignore the law and did not seek approval from Congress which is led by Republicans.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued in December, contending Trump was a “temporary tenant, not the owner” of the White House.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled Trump had no authority to build a new ballroom on the White House grounds without the approval of Congress, and he ordered a halt to the above-ground construction.
The D.C. Circuit Court affirmed his decision by a 2-1 vote. “Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House—the People’s House—to fit a particular President’s desires,” wrote Judge Patricia Millett for the appeals court.
Trump’s lawyers sent a fast-track appeal to the Supreme Court on Aug. 14.
The court’s majority allowed Trump to fend off the legal challenge by concluding the historic preservationists could not show they were harmed by a huge new ballroom that may dwarf the historic Executive Mansion.
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