Nine members of the Kennedy family sued on Tuesday to block President Donald Trump’s triumphal arch, saying that the planned 250-foot-tall structure would wrongly cast a shadow on John F. Kennedy’s grave site and other graves in Arlington National Cemetery.
The lawsuit, which comes after a federal judge last week temporarily halted construction on the project, cites The Washington Post’s analysis of how the towering arch would cast shadows across the cemetery.
“President Donald J. Trump is attempting to unlawfully erect a massive arch that will permanently cast shadows over and damage historically significant sightlines to the existing gravesites and memorials established in the Kennedy family’s honor at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as to the memorials of hundreds of thousands of fallen American heroes,” the lawsuit reads.
The Post’s analysis found that Trump’s arch would briefly cover Kennedy’s eternal flame on 18 days, and it would shade the former president’s memorial on 50. Over the course of a year, the shadow of the triumphal arch would touch burial sites in Arlington National Cemetery on 284 days, The Post found.
Spokespeople for the White House and the Interior Department, which is managing the project, did not immediately respond to questions about the new lawsuit.
The Interior Department said in a statement last month that the arch’s designers ran models and found that only a small section of the cemetery would be affected after its opening, for less than two weeks out of the year. “That period is less than an hour after sunrise, at which point shadows are very lengthened and distorted, and are mingled with the long shadows of trees,” the department said.
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan last week blocked work on the arch through Nov. 20 while the court considers challenges to its legality. Three Vietnam War veterans, a historic preservationist, the D.C. government and the Commonwealth of Virginia previously sued to halt construction.
The family members — seven children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, as well as former congressman Joe Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), their grandson, and Edward Kennedy Jr., Ted Kennedy’s son — are filing their motion to join the litigation.
Jarrett Ley and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
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