The request escalates the legal fight over the controversial project to the nation’s highest court.
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The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to clear the way for it to complete the White House ballroom, escalating the months-long legal fight over the president’s controversial project.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that suspending work on the project, which is being challenged by a historic preservation group, threatens national security and the safety of President Donald Trump, his family and executive branch staff.
“With the dangerous injunction poised to take effect for the first time on August 21, its stop-work mandate is even more flagrantly inequitable, if not impossible,” Sauer wrote in his filing. He asked the high court to allow the administration to continue its work while the legal battle plays out.
“Today, the Project is 65% complete in its entirety, and moving quickly toward total completion,” Sauer wrote.
The project includes the ballroom to host large events, as well as an underground bunker that the administration says is needed for security.
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The move comes after a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Aug. 7 placed a block on work on the aboveground portion of the more than $400 million structure, siding with a federal judge who earlier found work could not continue without congressional approval.
“We are aware of no instance in American history in which a President unilaterally and using privately collected funds demolished substantial portions of the White House that Congress authorized to be built and American taxpayers paid for. Until now,” the appeals court majority wrote.
The appeals court stayed its order to give the administration time to ask the high court to take up the case. The justices will now decide whether to temporarily allow construction to go forward or block it, while a lawsuit over the ballroom by the National Trust for Historic Preservation plays out in the courts.
Alternately, the justices might rule the trust has not suffered the real-world harm necessary to meet the legal bar to bring a lawsuit against the construction of the ballroom.
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This is a developing story and will be updated.
