President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow White House ballroom construction to continue after an appeals court order brought the work to a halt.
On Aug. 7, an appeals court upheld a district judge’s order blocking all construction as litigation moved through the courts. On Trump’s behalf, Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court on Friday.
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“If allowed to go into effect, the injunction would wrongfully install a single district judge as sole arbiter of what further construction is ‘strictly necessary’ to protect the safety of the President, his family, staff members, and visitors to the White House, including foreign dignitaries, and presidents and prime ministers of other countries,” Sauer wrote.
The appeals court decision has not yet gone into effect, and construction on the ballroom will continue until the Supreme Court rules on the Trump administration’s emergency motion.
The justices face an Aug. 21 deadline to act.
The initial ruling
The appeals court ruling and Supreme Court request stem from the initial March ruling from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who granted a request from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
As Straight Arrow previously reported, the organization sued the National Park Service in December 2025 over the construction to replace the demolished East Wing. The lawsuit alleged the project was moving forward without legally required reviews.
Leon ruled that the construction appeared to be a clear violation of a law requiring congressional approval for any building construction on federal property and that the Justice Department was likely to lose the lawsuit.
Leon went on to note that any construction on federal land must be approved by Congress, consistent with federal law.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has handled an unprecedented number of cases through its emergency docket. Decisions rarely contain legal rationales that can guide lower courts in future cases.
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