Donald Trump’s Supreme Court majority has allowed the president to continue building his $400 million White House ballroom—over the furious objections of Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberal justices.
In a 5-4 ruling Monday, the Supreme Court lifted a lower-court order that had threatened to halt construction of the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, even though Roberts concluded that the construction was ‘likely unlawful’ because it wasn’t authorized by Congress.
Roberts sided with the court’s liberal justices and, in a fiery dissent, warned that the court’s five other conservative justices had effectively allowed the president to outrun the courts while construction raced ahead.
“Construction of the ballroom has proceeded apace for the better part of a year,” he wrote.
“That construction is likely unlawful.”
“The White House is an iconic American building whose symbolism and history are wrapped up in its architecture,” the Chief Justice added, invoking former president Theodore Roosevelt, who once noted the importance of preserving such a historic building.
Therefore, Roberts said, it was critical to “ensure that those responsible follow the rules in deciding what to tear down and what to build up at the People’s House.”
The decision allows Trump to continue building his ever-expanding ballroom while a lawsuit by a historic preservation group seeking to stop the project proceeds.
But the Court reached its divided and unsigned decision via an expedited order on the “shadow docket” and without full oral argument about the merits of the project.
It also did not give a clear ruling on whether Trump had the legal authority to build the ballroom in the first place.
Instead, the five conservative justices concluded that the National Trust for Historic Preservation—the group challenging the project—was unlikely to have the legal standing required to stop construction.
They also found that forcing the administration to halt work now would cause “irreparable harm”.
Trump was thrilled by the decision, writing on Truth Social, “We are living in the Golden Age of America, and this Building will be one of the Greatest ever constructed in Washington, D.C.”
“When completed in the Summer of 2028, the magnificent Ballroom and Military Complex will be something that the entire Country is very proud of,” he added.
But Roberts hit out at the ruling by his conservative colleagues - Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch - as he sided with liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
He noted that the administration pointed to two statutory provisions to support its case. The first involved Congress providing $2.5 million for maintenance, and the second was a law requiring the National Parks Service to protect historic sites.
But Roberts said neither of these provisions gave Trump the right to raze the East Wing and build a $400 million ballroom in its place.
“The White House is not just any building,” he said.
“In failing to appreciate as much, the Court misconceives the plaintiff ’s injury, allowing the Executive’s likely infringement of the Legislature’s power of the purse and authority to regulate federal property in the District of Columbia to continue.”
“Today’s decision is no victory for the separation of powers.”
The ballroom began as a modest event-space renovation costing an estimated $200 million, but has since morphed into something much bigger.
A multi-level military complex is being built beneath the ballroom, complete with bomb shelters, a research facility, a military hospital and top secret meeting rooms.
“Before we started work, the military came to see me, and they said, ‘Sir, we have an opportunity to do something incredible here, and we’ve been trying to do it for 100 years, but we’ve never had an opportunity like that.’ So I had to make that decision. I said, “Look, go ahead, design what you want,” Trump told reporters earlier this month.
According to the administration, the project is now 65 per cent complete. What’s more, they claimed, it has been built with material used in nuclear power plants that would be “virtually impossible to deconstruct.”
“Quite frankly, if the building were tragically ordered to be taken down, or even altered, by the court, there would be no way to do so,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in a court filing when Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
Traci Feit Love, executive director of Lawyers for Good Government said in a statement that the court did not rule that Trump had the authority to proceed with the ballroom - it simply ruled “that these plaintiffs could not stop him.”
“At his core, Trump is attempting to rewrite how the rule of law works: break the rules, move forward without restraint, and force Congress, the courts, and the American people to accept the result after the fact,” Love said.
“No president should be able to manufacture authority simply by acting faster than our institutions can hold him accountable.”
