Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has permitted the White House to continue with the construction of President Donald Trump’s $400 million ballroom project. This decision comes amid ongoing legal scrutiny surrounding the project, which has faced various challenges. The ruling allows the construction to move forward for the time being, despite the controversies associated with its funding and implications.
Roberts signed a temporary order on Friday allowing work to continue while the court considers an emergency appeal from the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has scored a series of victories on the high court’s emergency docket, though the justices have ruled against some of the president’s signature policies after fuller review. A district court judge ordered a stop to aboveground construction of the planned ballroom in April in a ruling that was suspended before being upheld by an appeals court panel. The order from US District Judge Richard Leon in Washington allows belowground work on bunkers and military installations to continue. Leon was nominated by President George W Bush, a Republican.
The Trump administration says 65 per cent of work has already been completed on the planned 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-metre) ballroom, where the East Wing stood before the president ordered its demolition. Crews are working 20 hours a day, seven days a week on the project, where about $200 million in private donations has been spent or committed, Justice Department attorneys said in court documents.
The case comes before the nation’s highest court as Trump, a Republican, exercises unparalleled assertions of presidential power and increasingly seeks to mold the capital in his own image.
