President Donald Trump's administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to let construction continue on a $400 million White House ballroom while it appeals an order blocking the aboveground work. Solicitor General D. John Sauer sought an emergency stay of the lower-court injunction, and Chief Justice John Roberts gave the preservation group challenging the project until Tuesday to respond.
The request follows a 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholding a preliminary injunction. The majority said the executive branch could not unilaterally build the 90,000-square-foot, or roughly 8,400-square-meter, structure without authorization from Congress. The ballroom is rising where the East Wing stood before Trump ordered its demolition last fall.
The injunction is limited to construction above ground. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon allowed work below ground, including bunkers, military installations and medical facilities tied to presidential security. The appeals court delayed the effect of its ruling for two weeks, until August 21, to give the administration time to seek Supreme Court relief.
In its filing, the administration described the wider project as an integrated military complex with a secure ballroom and argued that stopping work would damage national security. It also said about $400 million in private donations meant taxpayer money was unnecessary. The National Trust for Historic Preservation disputes the administration's legal authority, while congressional Democrats have alleged that $350 million from a tax law may have been redirected to White House security work. Congress rejected an administration request for $1 billion for the ballroom in May.
The appeals court majority said the dispute concerned who has authority to approve the structure, not whether a ballroom is desirable. It concluded that construction could not proceed during the litigation without congressional approval. Judge Neomi Rao dissented, reasoning that the preservation group lacked standing to sue and that the lower court had placed one visitor's aesthetic concerns above government security interests. The administration repeated the standing argument in its Supreme Court application.
The justices have not decided whether to pause the injunction or whether they will ultimately review the case. Roberts' Tuesday deadline sets the next immediate procedural step, and the court could issue a temporary administrative order while it considers the stay request. The outcome will determine whether aboveground work can continue during the appeal and may clarify the boundary between presidential control of the White House complex and Congress' authority over federal construction.
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