The U.S. Supreme Court allowed construction on the White House banquet hall to continue while a lawsuit seeking to halt the work proceeds.
According to major foreign media on the 31st (local time), the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision by the nine justices, stayed the order halting the banquet hall construction and decided to allow work to continue while the main case is underway.
In this decision, five of the six conservative justices voted in favor. They found it likely that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue and that the government would face a likelihood of "irreparable harm" if the national security-related project were halted.
The Donald Trump administration had argued from the lower courts that the National Trust, which brought the suit, lacked standing, and a significant number of conservative justices effectively accepted that view.
Chief Justice John Roberts was the only conservative justice to dissent. In a dissent he wrote, Roberts said the banquet hall construction was "likely unlawful," stressing that "the White House is not just an ordinary building."
Roberts also said the majority "misunderstands the harms suffered by the plaintiffs," and noted that it allows the administration to continue an action (the banquet hall construction) that likely infringes on the legislature's power of the purse and its authority to regulate federal property in Washington, D.C.
The decision followed an emergency petition by the Trump administration after lower courts ordered the work halted. It is not a ruling on the merits of whether the banquet hall construction itself is lawful.
While the Supreme Court's decision permits construction only while the merits case proceeds, the banquet hall project is now more likely to move forward as planned given the usual pace of litigation. The White House banquet hall, about 90,000㎡ in size, is currently about 65% complete.
President Trump welcomed the Court's decision. He said on social media (SNS) Truth Social that it is a decision that allows the construction of the banquet hall and military complex "without any further contingencies, doubts, or threats."
Earlier, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the first-instance court, found that the banquet hall construction was on a scale incomparable to the minor modifications previous presidents had made on the White House grounds and therefore required congressional approval. However, he accepted the Trump side's argument that the underground facilities of the banquet hall were needed for security reasons, including upgrades to the White House military bunker, and ordered only the aboveground work halted.
Then, on the 7th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the second-instance court, also sided with the plaintiffs, saying, "Whether a large banquet hall should be built at the White House is for Congress to decide, not for the administration to decide unilaterally." The Trump administration immediately appealed to the Supreme Court.