Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s three liberal justices, writing in his dissent that the ongoing construction was ‘likely unlawful’
A 5-4 conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled Monday that construction on a new $400 million White House ballroom can proceed, reversing lower court orders that had temporarily halted aboveground work on the project.
Chief Justice John Roberts dissented from the decision, writing that the ongoing construction was “likely unlawful.”
Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in opposition, arguing that work on the facility had moved forward unchecked for nearly a year despite significant legal flaws.
Despite Roberts’ warning, the majority threw out the challenge against the Trump administration on procedural grounds. The court concluded that the plaintiff, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, lacked the legal standing required to pursue a federal lawsuit.
Trump initially indicated that he wanted to build a ballroom, but that none of the East Wing would’ve been touched. As with any significant government building, there’s a good amount of history and significance to the East wing. It’s also where guests would enter and hosted the First Lady’s office/staff.
Trump then proceeded to ignore the standard rules/requirements for making changes to the building, which he doesn’t have unilateral authority to do. He leveled the East Wing, and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the project during a government shutdown, money which was essentially pilfered from other allocations IIRC.
Despite various attempts to check his illegal construction efforts, he has continued unabated. Some of the funding has also come from “private donors” which has pretty transparently been influence bribery from important figures and CEOs and stuff.
There’s been a lot to it over time, but that’s some of the broad strokes.