A divided US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the White House may continue building a $400 million ballroom while lawsuits over the project proceed. The 5-4 decision handed President Donald Trump a legal victory as construction advances on the demolished East Wing.
The ruling blocked a lower-court order that had halted above-ground work. The majority did not rule on the project’s legality. Instead, it found that the preservation group challenging the construction likely lacked the legal standing to bring its case.
Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, joining the court’s three liberal-leaning justices. “That construction is likely unlawful,” the dissenting justices wrote. Roberts had earlier issued a temporary order pausing enforcement hours before the lower-court decision was set to take effect.
The lawsuit came from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Its lawyers argued that Trump has no unilateral authority to undertake the work, which required demolishing the East Wing. The group accused the administration of trying to “outrun the courts” by accelerating construction.
Federal courts had ordered the project to stop, finding it lacked congressional approval. The administration then asked the justices to intervene. Government lawyers countered that the president holds full authority to renovate the White House and other federal buildings.
The administration also cited national security concerns as a reason to complete the ballroom. Those concerns were not part of Trump’s original announcement of the project, which he said would be privately funded.
The case now returns to lower courts. Court documents indicate that key portions of the project could be finished within months, a fast timeline against the pace of a typical legal case. The dispute echoes an earlier appeals court ruling that halted the work over the missing congressional sign-off.
The ballroom is part of a broader remaking of the capital under the current administration. The demolition of the East Wing drew objections from preservation advocates who said the changes altered a historic structure without oversight.
With the injunction lifted, construction may resume immediately. The underlying lawsuit over the project’s legality remains unresolved in the lower courts.