The Supreme Courtroom on Friday afternoon allowed development on a brand new 90,000-square-foot White Home ballroom to proceed – a minimum of for now. Senior U.S. District Decide Richard Leon had issued an order, slated to enter impact on the finish of the day, that might have stopped above-ground work on the mission. However Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary order, often known as an administrative keep, that saved Leon’s order on maintain to provide the justices extra time to contemplate the Trump administration’s request to pause it.
The transient, one-sentence keep didn’t point out when the justices may act on the federal government’s request. Leon’s order has by no means gone into impact, allowing the Trump administration to maneuver ahead with development whereas the case made its manner towards the Supreme Courtroom. U.S. Solicitor Normal D. John Sauer told the Supreme Courtroom final week that there was “a 250-person crew working 20 hours a day, 7 days every week to maintain the Challenge forward of schedule and below funds”; in consequence, he wrote, as of final week, the mission was “65% full in its entirety, and shifting shortly towards complete completion.”
The dispute dates again to final fall, when the Trump administration tore down the East Wing of the White Home to construct a 90,000-square-foot ballroom – simply barely smaller than one-and-a-half soccer fields. The National Trust for Historic Preservation went to federal court in Washington, D.C., in December, in search of to pause development whereas the mission obtained the mandatory approvals and authorization from Congress.
Leon issued an order that briefly prohibited the Trump administration from finishing up most development above floor however allowed underground development of safety features resembling bomb shelters and bunkers to go ahead. That order remained on maintain whereas the federal government’s attraction made its technique to the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which on Aug. 7 affirmed his ruling however gave the federal authorities 14 days to hunt reduction from the Supreme Courtroom, preserving the order on maintain and permitting development to proceed.
The Trump administration came to the Supreme Court on Aug. 14, asking the justices to intervene. U.S. Solicitor Normal D. John Sauer informed the justices that Leon’s ruling would “halt the continuing development of the built-in army advanced, together with a completely safe ballroom area, on the East Wing of the White Home, which is vitally required by nationwide safety.” The Trump administration contended that the belief doesn’t have a authorized proper to sue, often known as standing. It additionally pushed again towards the conclusion by the D.C. Circuit majority that Congress should authorize the ballroom mission, telling the justices that Congress has approved the mission, each by giving Trump and different presidents the ability “to make ‘alteration[s]’ and ‘enchancment[s]’ to the White Home” and since it “broadly approved the Govt to assemble buildings in nationwide parks.”
In a brief filed on Tuesday, the Nationwide Belief – represented by Tad Heuer of Foley Hoag – argued that the Trump administration was making an attempt to “outrun judicial evaluate” by fast-tracking development of the entire mission after which telling the court docket it was too late for the justices to step in, as a result of the mission is now “past the purpose of no return.” However the authorities’s “efforts to foil judicial evaluate and arrogate Congress’s unique powers shouldn’t be rewarded with a keep that permits [it] to finish a ballroom [it] lacked any authority to begin within the first place,” Heuer contended.
After having not initially acted on Sauer’s request, in his Aug. 14 submitting, for an “quick” administrative keep, Roberts – who has main duty for emergency appeals from the District of Columbia – granted one on Friday.
Really useful Quotation: Amy Howe, Supreme Courtroom permits White Home ballroom development to proceed for now, SCOTUSblog (Aug. 21, 2026, 2:55 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/08/supreme-court-allows-white-house-ballroom-construction-to-continue-for-now/