Trump asks Supreme Court to end White House ballroom legal battle

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the legal fight over the White House ballroom project, seeking to end the lawsuit after the justices earlier this year allowed construction to continue.Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed a petition for the Supreme Court to take up the case on its merits docket, urging the justices to reverse the lower court’s ruling, which they had paused with their Aug. 31 emergency docket ruling. Sauer explained that the justices could quickly adopt the per curiam ruling it issued earlier this year allowing construction to continue on the ballroom, saying there is “nothing further or new that this Court needs to decide after its per curiam opinion.”“Indeed, in staying the district court’s preliminary injunction, and in issuing a detailed per curiam opinion explaining the basis for that stay, this Court has all but answered the question presented. The Court held that the ‘government has established that it is likely to succeed on the merits of a significant legal question, that it would likely suffer irreparable harm without a stay, and thatthe balance of equities tips in its favor,'” Sauer wrote in his petition. Sauer also argued that, because the project has progressed so significantly, the high court should end the legal war over it, a fight that a majority of justices already said the administration is likely to win.“This Office has been informed the project is now roughly 70% complete and, in turn, there remains no sound way now to redesign or unwind the massive superstructure that is currently standing at the White House. It is well past time to dispel the injunctive specter hanging over these critical efforts,” Sauer said, adding that at minimum, the Supreme Court should take up the case for full oral arguments.The petition was filed late last week, but it appeared on the Supreme Court’s docket in the past day. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit preservationist group that filed the lawsuit seeking to block the ballroom, has been given until Dec. 7 to respond to the Department of Justice’s petition, if it elects to do so.The high court ruled 5-4 in August to allow construction on the ballroom and the wider East Wing renovation to proceed, finding that the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely lacked standing to sue over the project.“This Court has not found standing in circumstances like these before,” the unsigned per curiam ruling said. “To the contrary, we have repeatedly held that mere offense, disagreement, or distaste does not qualify as a concrete and particularized injury under Article III.”Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined the five-justice unsigned majority opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, in which he argued the ballroom project “is likely unlawful.”The White House ballroom has been the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s renovations and changes to Washington, D.C., in his second term, which has also included a new landing pad on the south lawn of the White House, changes to the public golf course at East Potomac Park, the renovation of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, and general beautification efforts at parks and fountains throughout the federal district.SUPREME COURT LIFTS BLOCK ON BIG BEND BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION LAWSUITTrump, who has taken a personal interest in the ballroom, spoke to reporters at the construction site last week to commemorate the final beam being placed as part of the ballroom project.The Trump administration has had a strong record on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket but a mixed record on its merits docket. The high court will hear oral arguments in various Trump administration cases this term, including a challenge to the administration’s third-country deportation policy in December.