WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to end a preservation group’s lawsuit over the new East Wing of the White House, telling the justices that the project, which includes a ballroom and new security facilities, is about 70% complete and should move forward “outside the shadow of judicial superintendence.”
The petition, filed Nov. 5 by Solicitor General D. John Sauer on behalf of the National Park Service, the president and other officials, asks the court to summarily reverse a federal appeals court ruling that upheld an injunction against above-ground construction. The case, National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation, No. 26-599, was reported Monday by Bloomberg Law.
Work has continued in the meantime. On Aug. 31, the Supreme Court stayed the district court’s injunction while the government prepared its petition, holding in a per curiam opinion that the government “is likely to succeed on the merits of a significant legal question, that it would likely suffer irreparable harm without a stay, and that the balance of equities tips in its favor,” the petition says.
The administration’s case
The government argues that the August ruling “all but answered the question presented.” It says the court has already found that the National Trust likely lacks standing, because its claims rest on one member who said she walks near the White House about once a month and expects to dislike the new building. The justices wrote that “mere offense, disagreement, or distaste does not qualify as a concrete and particularized injury under Article III,” according to the filing.
The petition describes the project as “a vital national-security effort.” It says the old East Wing could not bear the weight of modern protections such as blast-resistant windows and fortified walls, and that work underground, including a ventilation system, a revamped medical facility and a bomb shelter, could not be built beneath the old structure. It also cites a degraded foundation, mold, asbestos and lead paint.
The ballroom’s costs are paid by private donations to the Park Service, transferred to the Executive Residence under the Economy Act, the government says. It argues that Congress gave the president broad authority over “alteration” and “improvement” of the Executive Residence in 1978, and notes that past presidents reshaped the grounds without specific appropriations, from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s rebuilding of both wings to Gerald Ford’s pool.
“There remains no sound way now to redesign or unwind the massive superstructure that is currently standing at the White House,” the filing says. As an alternative to summary reversal, it asks the court to take the case for full review.
How the lower courts ruled
The National Trust sued on Dec. 12, 2025, a week after demolition of the old East Wing was completed, the petition says. The federal district court in Washington first denied relief, then, after the group added a claim that officials acted beyond their legal authority, blocked the above-ground ballroom in March and April. The district court found that neither the 1978 law nor the Park Service’s Organic Act authorized the project, and that a separate law requires express congressional approval for construction in federal parks in the District, according to the government’s summary.
On Aug. 7, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed, holding that the Trust had standing and that the project was not authorized by statute. Judge Neomi Rao dissented, calling the injunction “a blatant abuse of discretion,” the petition says.
The case is a local one in a literal sense. The East Wing sits in President’s Park, a unit of the National Park System, and the injunction turned on rules for building on federal parkland in the capital.
The National Trust will have a chance to respond before the justices act. The petition asks the court to decide the case without a full round of merits briefing and oral argument.
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