A federal judge on Thursday issued a new order halting construction of President Donald Trump’s much-touted new White House ballroom, finding the administration was using fancy footwork to try to sidestep his previous ruling.
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U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had previously issued an order halting the $400 million project until the White House got it approved by Congress, with an exception for “actions strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds.” That specifically includes an underground bunker and security measures being put in place at the site under the former East Wing structure.
Trump argued that the exception also meant the whole 90,000-square-foot ballroom could be built, because the entire project is necessary for the safety and security of the White House. Leon disagreed.
“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated. That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!” Leon, a noted fan of exclamation marks, wrote. “It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!”
“I cannot possibly agree,” Leon added.
National security, Leon writes, “is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity.”
The order does not take effect for seven days, which gives the government time to appeal.
Leon also clarified “the scope of the injunction” he issued last month, as a federal appeals court had ordered him to do last week.
The order “does not prohibit below-ground construction, including below-ground construction of national security facilities, as well as above-ground construction short of constructing the proposed above-ground ballroom that is strictly necessary to cover, secure, and protect such national security facilities, provided that any such construction will not lock in the above-ground size and scale of the ballroom,” Leon wrote.
The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The plaintiff in the case, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, had filed suit seeking to block the president’s pet project until he received congressional approval, because the massive project exceeded his authority.
Leon agreed and issued a preliminary injunction, which the administration appealed.
The Justice Department adapted an argument that Trump made after the ruling — that the whole project could proceed because it’s necessary for national security.
Administration lawyers asked the judge to adopt their position, and “clarify that under the safety-and-security exception, Defendants may proceed with construction of the East Wing project as scheduled because the entire project advances critical national-security objectives as an integrated whole.”
That’s because “a bunker or bomb shelter cannot serve its purpose without adequate above-ground cover,” they argued.
The preservation group argued in response that the administration’s position was a “brazen contortion of the laws of vocabulary,” and noted the administration had previously contended the bunker and underground facilities that were being built were separate from the ballroom.
That position changed after the judge’s ruling, the group said. “Bunkers, apparently, are only as good as the 90,000-square-foot, 40- foot-ceiling ballrooms on top of them,” the trust said. The group had objected to the underground work.