President Donald Trump scored a Supreme Court victory Monday in his push to build a $400 million White House ballroom, with the justices allowing construction on the controversial project to continue.
The court ruled 5-4 that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued to stop the project, likely lacked legal standing to challenge the construction in federal court.
But the unsigned majority opinion stopped short of deciding whether Trump actually has the legal authority to build the ballroom without congressional approval.
“Today, we do not pass upon the legality of the government’s East Wing project,” the majority wrote. Instead, the court said the Trump administration was likely to prevail in its argument that the preservation group lacked standing to bring the case.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in dissent, arguing that the project was “likely unlawful” because Congress had not authorized it.
“Today’s decision is no victory for the separation of powers,” Roberts wrote.
The ruling comes after Roberts temporarily allowed construction to continue earlier this month while the Supreme Court considered the Trump administration’s emergency appeal.
The National Trust sued after the White House’s East Wing was demolished to make way for the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled earlier this month that above-ground work could not proceed without congressional authorization.
The Trump administration has argued that the president has broad authority to renovate the White House and that the larger project includes security upgrades necessary to protect the president, his family and other officials. In its Supreme Court filing, the administration called the project an “integrated military complex” that includes hardened security infrastructure and other national-security facilities.
Trump has said the ballroom will cost roughly $400 million and be funded through private donations. The administration has said construction crews are working 20 hours a day, with the ballroom’s framework expected to be completed in November and the full project slated for completion in 2028.
Monday’s decision clears the way for construction on the ballroom to continue.
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