SCOTUS lets White House ballroom construction resume

The nation’s highest court issued a 5-4 order on Monday allowing the Trump administration to continue construction on the long-contested White House ballroom. Trump officials demolished the East Wing in order to build the new ballroom, which triggered the National Trust for Historic Preservation to sue over the project. The case volleyed between federal courts in the months-long legal battle, after the Trump administration petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene less than two weeks ago.

What rationale did the justices give? The unsigned order found the historic society lacked the legal right to object to the project, and allowed the Trump administration to move forward with construction. The eight-page order emphasized that the ruling did not determine the overall legality of the project, but rather just the plaintiff’s right to object.

Was there a dissent? Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a dissent, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined him. Roberts argued that the construction was likely illegal because the president did not first obtain congressional approval, and that the historic society did have standing to sue.