You know what they say about giving an inch. The Trump administration apparently took Judge Richard Leon’s thoughtful national-security carve-out in his preliminary injunction order — the one that let construction continue only for genuine safety measures — and decided it meant the whole ballroom project could barrel along unimpeded. Judge Leon had a decidedly different take.
If you’ve been following along at home (and if you haven’t, this saga has been going on for months — Judge Leon was side-eyeing the government’s constitutional theory back in January), this is the case where the National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to stop Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom — the one being built on the rubble of the demolished East Wing, with zero congressional authorization and a funding structure Leon once memorably called a “Rube Goldberg contraption.” On March 31st, Leon dropped his preliminary injunction and told the administration that, surprising no one who had been paying attention, presidents don’t get to freestyle renovations on national landmarks without an act of Congress.
But Leon, cognizant of the genuine security complexities at any active White House construction site, included a safety-and-security exception. It was a reasonable gesture. The administration promptly tried to drive a 90,000-square-foot ballroom through it.
This judge is having exactly zero of this nonsense, writing, “It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!”
In today’s opinion, available below, Leon clarified and amended his injunction — and he was not subtle about his irritation with the government’s reading of his original order. Right out of the gate:
Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated. That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!
Gotta love a judge that is unafraid of the exclamation mark! This is a federal district judge — a George W. Bush appointee, lest we forget, not exactly a card-carrying member of the so-called “Resistance” — using the rhetorical equivalent of a buzzer on the administration’s argument.
So what does the amended order actually do? Leon drew a clean line: above-ground construction of the proposed ballroom is stopped. Below-ground construction, including actual national security facilities like bunkers, bomb shelters, military installations, and medical facilities, can proceed. Construction necessary to protect the structural integrity of the White House, handle waterproofing, secure the site, and cover the underground elements can also move forward. What cannot move forward is the ballroom itself.
This is where it gets really delicious for anyone who has been watching this case. The administration previously told the court that the below-ground and above-ground elements of the project were independent of each other. They said the underground work was “driven by national security concerns independent of the above-grade construction.” They even assured the court the below-ground elements didn’t “lock in” the above-ground design. Leon quotes this back to them with what I can only describe as judicial relish.
Defendants’ latest representations that “the entire project advances critical national-security objectives as an integrated whole” are in direct conflict with Defendants’ prior representations that the above-ground and below-ground portions of the project were “independent of” one another.
Leon used the word “brazenly” to describe the government’s latest pivot. That’s gotta sting.
The administration also threw in the argument that security features like missile-resistant steel columns, drone-proof roofing, and bulletproof windows bring the whole above-ground structure within the security exception. Leon dispatched this efficiently, noting that those features are still months or years away from being installed — so any claim of “irreparable harm” from not having them right now is belied by the administration’s own admission that the project won’t be done until 2028.
On the national security classified declarations — four of them — that the government submitted ex parte? Leon reviewed all of them. They apparently shed no light on why an above-ground ballroom is a national security necessity. If the government had something classified and convincing, it didn’t make it into those declarations.
Judge Leon also has a line towards the end of the opinion that low key calls out a lot of Trump 2.0 justifications for doing whatever-the-fuck they want to do: “national security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity.”
Say it louder for the people in the back. Leon notes that he has taken the national security concerns seriously throughout this case — which is why the exception exists in the first place — but judicial deference is not judicial abdication. He cites precedent standing for the proposition that deference applies “so long as the government’s declarations raise legitimate concerns,” not as a magic incantation that ends all scrutiny.
Leon also took a moment to note, with what I imagine was a certain weary exasperation, that he has “no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager.” He never required the administration to get written pre-approval for individual construction decisions. The point of the opinion, he explains patiently, is simply to clarify that the injunction does, in fact, stop the ballroom. That this needs clarification at all says something.
The DOJ has its appeal already pending at the D.C. Circuit, which previously remanded the case for exactly this clarification, so we’ll see what the Circuit does now that Leon has given them what they asked for.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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