Lawsuit seeks to stop White House ballroom construction

Work on the ballroom that President Trump began in October must stop until the administration shares its plans with the organizations that it’s constitutionally and statutorily required to work with, the National Trust for Historic Preservation says in a lawsuit it filed in federal district court last week.

“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever,” the organization, chartered by Congress in 1949 to keep watch over the country’s historic architecture, said in its court filing. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”

The lawsuit alleges President Trump violated the Constitution’s Article IV, on the separation of powers, by acting without input from Congress. “Congress’s power over federal property is exclusive,” the lawsuit says. “Nothing in the Constitution gives the President overlapping authority to dispose of federal property. As a result, only Congress may authorize the demolition or construction of federal buildings.”

The lawsuit also alleges the federal government’s real estate arm, the General Services Administration, and two other agencies with responsibility for federal properties — the National Park Service and the Department of Interior — along with their directors, violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The law requires agencies, when working on projects in Washington, D.C., to conduct an environmental assessment and publish an environmental impact statement on the project. They must also get the approval of the National Capitol Planning Commission and a review from the Commission of Fine Arts after a period of public review and comment before making changes to federal buildings.

The suit seeks “to compel the Defendants to comply with [these] procedural requirements,” it says.

The White House has rejected the lawsuit. “President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House — just like all of his predecessors did,” White House spokesman David Ingle told CNBC.

Carol Quillen, National Trust for Historic Preservation president and CEO, said the organization reached out to the administration over how the project was proceeding but was met with silence. “The National Trust was compelled to file this case,” she said in a press release.

The lawsuit is the latest skirmish between preservation organizations and the administration over how the White House is treating federal properties. In November, Cultural Heritage Partners sued to stop President Trump from painting and making renovations to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the White House, without first submitting plans for review and public comment. The lawsuit was withdrawn this week after GSA said it wouldn’t undertake any work before March 1 of next year.

“Cultural Heritage Partners … accepted assurances from the General Services Administration” about the delay, Roll Call reported.

In a declaration filed last week as part of that lawsuit, a former GSA official said the administration appeared to be readying the demolition of four historically significant federal buildings in Washington, raising the possibility that preservationists will file another lawsuit to stop that action as well.

GSA “doesn’t have the president’s actions under control,” Gregory Werkheiser, one of the law partners at Cultural Heritage Partners, told the federal judge during a hearing on the Eisenhower building.

The judge in the ballroom case is expected to hold a hearing today on the request for the work to stop, Reuters reported.

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