(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom to continue after a lower court put it on pause.
The administration on Friday asked the high court for an emergency stay of the injunction, which would halt substantial portions of the above-ground construction of the White House East Wing and ballroom while litigation plays out over its legality.
The injunction is set to take effect on Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court acts.
The district court order would still allow below-ground construction or any other measures necessary to protect national security and the president’s safety.
Solicitor General John Sauer called the injunction “extraordinary and unlawful,” arguing that it would put the security of the president and his family at risk and override the advice of the nation’s top military, intelligence and law enforcement officials.
“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 district court concluded that Trump lacks the authority to overhaul the White House without congressional approval. A divided federal appeals court upheld the ruling earlier this month.
In his appeal to the justices to intervene, Sauer suggested halting construction would directly put the life of the president at risk, citing six “recent assassination attempts,” including “the threat of a missile attack against Air Force One on July 8.”
“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,” he wrote.
The government argued that it is likely to win on appeal in the case, insisting that the National Trust for Historic Preservation lacks standing to bring the lawsuit and that federal law has long allowed presidents to undertake the “care, maintenance, repair, alteration, refurbishment, and improvement … of the Executive Residence at the White House.”
The Supreme Court is expected to seek a response from the National Trust for Historic Preservation sometime in the next week before rendering a decision on the stay.
Sauer indicated that the administration also plans to ask the Supreme Court to take the case up for expedited oral argument and decision on the merits.
Separately, the administration’s filing appeared to provide new details about the state of the construction operation.
The government asserts that it is “on time” and “under budget” and that “zero taxpayer dollars are needed or required.”
Though there is no mention of the White House’s $1 billion funding request to Congress for White House hardening and enhancements for evolving threats and technology, which have been widely seen by lawmakers as related to Trump’s ballroom.
Senate Democrats on Wednesday formally asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an audit of the project and its funding.
“The scale of this project, the destruction of historic architecture, the opaque and unorthodox combination of public funds with private funding sources, and the absence of standard federal review processes raise serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and stewardship of this national landmark,” the lawmakers wrote.
Sauer claimed in Friday’s filing that the project is 65% complete and that $200 million has been spent or committed to date.
He says a 250-person crew is working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. The structure is said to be 5 stories deep and 70-feet above ground across 50,000 square feet.
The administration’s filing also includes sworn declarations from some of the most senior officials in the government, including from the secretary of state, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the heads of the FBI and Secret Service, in an effort to dramatically lay out the national security justifications for the ballroom.
One White House official also said in a declaration that the construction is simply too far along for the project to be safely stopped.
“[I]f work is stopped in line with the district court’s injunction, it will be a disaster,” wrote Joshua Fisher, the White House director of management and administration. “Quite frankly, if the building were tragically ordered to be taken down, or even altered, by the court, there would be no way to do so.”
Fisher says the concrete-and-steel superstructure is now “beyond the point of no return,” adding that the freestanding walls “cannot be left as-is without being tied together with the designed structural steel.”
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