The Supreme Court delivered a win to President Donald Trump, ruling that construction on the $400 million White House ballroom can continue.
In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court stopped a ruling from a lower court that would have “restricted construction until Congress provided additional approvals,” the Hill reported.
While the ruling from the court “is not a final decision, and the case could ultimately return to the Supreme Court,” construction on the ballroom can move forward, according to the outlet:
It is not a final decision, and the case could ultimately return to the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, construction may proceed unimpeded. A 250-person crew is working on the ballroom 20 hours a day, seven days a week, court records indicate.
Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to make way for the 90,000-square foot ballroom on the White House campus.
While Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was reported to have joined Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor in dissenting, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett “sided with the president, ruling that a preservationist group likely had no right to sue.”
Trump previously thanked the Supreme Court after Roberts allowed construction on the ballroom to proceed as the Supreme Court reviewed an emergency appeal from the Trump administration.
The Trump administration’s appeal came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that construction on the ballroom must be halted, arguing that “each President is a temporary tenant.”
“Each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House and its Executive Residence,” the judges said.
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