{"slug": "trump-ballroom-construction-should-not-be-up-to-courts-government-attorney-in", "title": "Trump ballroom construction should not be up to courts, government attorney argues in appeals case", "summary": "A federal government attorney argued Friday that courts cannot halt construction of a $400 million White House ballroom once work is underway, asserting that only Congress has the authority to stop the project. During a hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, attorney Yaakov Roth told judges that the administration should be allowed to proceed without congressional approval, citing sensitive security concerns the structure is meant to address. The case stems from an April 16 order by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon that halted aboveground work on the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation challenged in a December lawsuit.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...**By GARY FIELDS and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN**\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers representing the federal government argued Friday that a court could not stop construction of a White House ballroom it was already underway and because of the sensitive security concerns they say the structure is meant to address.\n\nAttorney Yaakov Roth, speaking during an exchange with U.S. Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millett, said only Congress could stop the $400 million project. The administration has been asking the court to allow it to press on without congressional approval.\n\nAt issue is an April 16 order from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon for Trump’s Republican administration to [halt aboveground work on the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom](https://apnews.com/article/white-house-ballroom-site-trump-1f3ad790860ce7a9c61a5a70d58b8b0e). Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, allowed for construction to continue on belowground work on a bunker and other “national security facilities” at the site.\n\nThe hearing Friday centered on who has standing to challenge government steps once they have already been taken and whether that standing overrides national security.\n\nIn response to hypothetical scenarios put forward by Millett, Roth agreed that the government could bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and the White House — and the descendants of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and the enslaved people who built the White House would not have legal standing to oppose the move after the fact.\n\nMillett, nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, asked Roth when the construction was a “fait accompli?”\n\n“Was it when you started doing the underground work, which is now totally completely integral and connected and inseparable from a massive ballroom on top?” she asked. “When did it become impossible for courts to stop this project?”\n\nRoth replied: “I think it would have been improper to enjoin it even on Day One.”\n\nThe exchange was one of many during the two-hour hearing before the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The hearing concluded without a decision by the judges.\n\nThe hearing concluded without a decision by the judges.\n\nThe National Trust for Historic Preservation [sued to challenge the project](https://apnews.com/article/trump-white-house-ballroom-sued-preservationists-76dc3bbea28257e79f8becd487d2c4d7) in December, a week after the White House finished [demolishing the East Wing](https://apnews.com/article/trump-white-house-ballroom-57512e0d91432f75529946fddfbfe2c5) to make way for a ballroom that Trump said would fit 999 people.\n\nIt is hard to determine how the judges might rule. While there were numerous questions for Roth over the administration’s authority and changing explanations of how it is moving forward, plaintiff attorney Tad Heuer also faced numerous questions.\n\nThe judges pressed Heuer on standing in the case and on how basic aesthetic questions can override the national security concerns.\n\n“We have never opposed the underground construction of the bunker, which is where the government until recently has said the national security concerns lay,” Heuer said. He said construction should be halted until Congress weighs in.\n\n“Congress can allow ballrooms to be built — it’s its property,” Heuer said.\n\nGovernment lawyers have argued that the project includes critical security features to guard against a range of threats, such as drones, ballistic missiles and biohazards.\n\n“These upgrades, alterations, and improvements are essential to protecting the President, his family, and his staff, as well as the White House itself, and the entire project flows from them,” they wrote in [a court filing](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.43043/gov.uscourts.cadc.43043.01208848146.0_1.pdf).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/trump-ballroom-construction-should-not-be-up-to-courts-government-attorney-in", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/05/appeals-court-debates-white-house-ballroom-project/", "published_at": "2026-06-05 19:45:58+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-05 19:59:01.483853+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Yaakov Roth", "Patricia Millett", "Richard Leon", "George W. Bush", "White House", "Congress", "Trump administration", "AP"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/trump-ballroom-construction-should-not-be-up-to-courts-government-attorney-in", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/trump-ballroom-construction-should-not-be-up-to-courts-government-attorney-in.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/trump-ballroom-construction-should-not-be-up-to-courts-government-attorney-in.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/trump-ballroom-construction-should-not-be-up-to-courts-government-attorney-in.jsonld"}}