Appeals court majority appears sympathetic to White House ballroom challenge

A majority on a three-judge appeals court panel appeared sympathetic to a challenge to President Trump’s White House ballroom project at oral arguments Friday. 

The two Democratic-appointed judges pressed the government on its arguments that Congress has already given all necessary approvals and that a preservationist group has no right to sue. 

“If the government decided very quickly and bulldozed the Statue of Liberty, the people whose ancestors, that was the first thing they saw coming to this country, but the government moved too fast. Nothing can be done?” U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett asked.

“I think that’s right,” responded Yaakov Roth, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice Civil Division. 

Last fall, Trump tore down the East Wing to make way for the new 90,000-square-foot project at the White House. As his administration defends its legality, it has increasingly emphasized a national security need for the ballroom in the wake of two recent shootings near the president’s location.

As Roth took incisive questioning Friday about the project’s legality, the panel did at times acknowledge the administration’s national security concerns. It has said below-ground work on those security features are distinct from the construction of the ballroom itself and should be allowed to continue regardless.

The $400 million project has spurred a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which contends Congress needs to pass new legislation for Trump to move........

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