A federal court of appeals has ruled work can continue on President Trump's new $400 million White House ballroom – for now.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Saturday, April 11, that construction on the ballroom can proceed until at least April 17. That extends by three days a March 31 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon, which allowed construction to continue while the government appealed the decision.
The appeals judges voted 2-1 to extend the pause to April 17 and asked the district court to clarify the order that granted the injunction. The Trump Administration argued in an April 3 motion that the potential April 14 work stoppage left the White House "open and exposed" and created "grave national-security harms" to the building, the president and his family and staff.
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Leon, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, had ruled construction on the 90,000-square-foot ballroom must pause while a lawsuit, filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, made its way through the courts. The lawsuit seeks to halt the $400 million project on the site of the recently demolished East Wing, alleging it is unlawful and has asked the court to halt further construction until the plans go through a legally mandated review process.
