The US Supreme Court has allowed Donald Trump’s administration to continue construction of a planned $400 million ballroom at the White House, overturning a lower-court order that had halted most above-ground work.
The 5-4 decision is a significant victory for the president, whose administration argued that stopping the project would cause irreparable harm and interfere with national security arrangements at the White House.
However, the justices did not rule on whether the construction is lawful. Instead, the unsigned majority opinion said the National Trust for Historic Preservation was likely unable to bring the case because it had not shown the type of direct injury required to establish legal standing. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/26a203_2b8e.pdf))
The court’s order stays the injunction while the government pursues a petition for the justices to hear the wider case. If the Supreme Court declines to take it, the stay will automatically end.
John Roberts says ballroom is ‘likely unlawful’
Chief Justice John Roberts was the only conservative justice to dissent. He was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Roberts wrote that the ballroom was “likely unlawful”, arguing that Congress had expressly prohibited the construction of buildings on federal parkland in Washington DC without its authorisation.
“The ballroom is a building or structure being erected on federal park grounds—President’s Park—in the District of Columbia,” he wrote. “Yet Congress has not passed any law resembling ‘express authority’ for the Executive’s construction of it.”
He said the majority had permitted construction to continue not because it had established that the project was legal, but because it believed the preservation group was unlikely to have standing to challenge it.
The project began after the East Wing was demolished. The Supreme Court’s opinion said demolition was completed in December 2025, with work then moving on to a replacement East Wing incorporating an underground military installation and the above-ground ballroom. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/26a203_2b8e.pdf))
The National Trust filed its lawsuit in December 2025, claiming the administration had acted without the necessary congressional approval and had bypassed legally required reviews involving federal agencies responsible for planning, design and environmental protection.
A federal district judge later ordered the government to stop above-ground construction, while allowing work below ground and activity deemed strictly necessary to protect the White House, the president and his staff.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that injunction on August 7 and said Congress, rather than the executive branch, had responsibility for deciding whether the White House could be substantially redesigned. ([media.cadc.uscourts.gov](https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/docs/2026/08/26-5123-2187096.pdf))
The administration told the Supreme Court that the wider project was an integrated security complex, including protection from bombs, drones and missiles, as well as medical facilities and other emergency infrastructure.
Trump welcomed the ruling in a social media post, describing the legal challenge as baseless and saying the building would be among the greatest ever constructed in Washington.
The National Trust’s challenge will now return to the lower courts, although the Supreme Court noted that important sections of the development could be completed within months—potentially before the legal dispute is finally resolved. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/6b9434af0a2dbeffa0ca19f5cdf7d775))
