WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the White House to continue construction on its US$400-million ballroom project while it appeals a lower court’s order to halt the work. Trump’s solicitor general petitioned the high court to suspend last week’s decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The divided panel ruled last week Trump must stop the White House ballroom’s construction because Congress has not approved the project. The panel’s majority said Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to build an 8,400-square-metre ballroom where the White House’s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall. The lower court suspended its own ruling for two weeks to give Trump’s Republican administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. The solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to rule on its stay petition before the appeals court panel’s decision takes effect on Aug. 21. “This case involves an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex, including a totally secure ballroom space, at the East Wing of the White House, which is vitally required by national security,” the solicitor general wrote. The lower court’s 2-1 decision sided with historic preservationists who sued to stop construction of the ballroom. The administration argues that the president, not Congress or the courts, has unimpeded authority to renovate the White House. The current state of the project, essentially an open construction site, makes it harder to protect the White House, the Justice Department contends. The administration also says the National Trust for Historic Preservation does not have the legal right, or standing, to sue over the ballroom. During an appeals court hearing in early June, an administration lawyer defended a broad view of presidential control over iconic public facilities. The government could bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and the White House, Justice Department lawyer Yaakov Roth said in response to a hypothetical question, and the descendants of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and the enslaved people who built the White House would not have standing to sue. By Michael Kunzelman
