President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to build a ballroom at the White House, citing previous threats to Trump’s life, national security needs and architectural values.
The emergency request filed Friday comes after lower courts repeatedly ruled that Trump needed approval from Congress before moving forward with the $400 million project.
The latest rebuke came last week, when an appeals court in Washington, DC, said the president lacked any authority to unilaterally pursue the planned ballroom and ordered him to stop work at the site of the former East Wing until lawmakers gave their blessing. But the court paused implementation of its decision for 14 days to give Trump time to appeal to the justices.
US Solicitor General John Sauer argued in the filing with the Supreme Court that the East Wing construction was “absolutely required “ for the president’s safety, noting the attempts that have been made on Trump’s life in recent years.
“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception,” Sauer wrote. “The injunction is ‘judicial overreach beyond the proper province of the federal courts.’”
