Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Aug. 21 said the Trump administration can proceed with construction of a new White House ballroom.
Roberts, in a brief order, paused the preliminary injunction that had been entered by a U.S. district judge and upheld by a federal appeals court.
The lower court order “is hereby stayed pending further order of The Chief Justice or of the Court,” Roberts said, granting an appeal from the Trump administration.
“We are grateful for the Decision of the United States Supreme Court,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed the case, has not reacted to the development.
Construction of the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom began in 2025. Its cost has been pegged at $400 million, with financing coming from private donors.
Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in March entered the preliminary injunction against construction of the ballroom.
Leon said that there are no laws that give the president the authority to build the ballroom and that construction must stop until Congress authorized the ballroom’s completion, even if private funds are being used for the work. Leon later clarified that the block was for above-ground construction.
A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in April temporarily halted Leon’s injunction as it considered the case.
A majority of the panel on Aug. 7 reinstated the injunction. The majority said that “whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help” and that Congress had not ceded “unfettered authority” to the president to dramatically alter the White House.
That prompted the government’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the emergency application to the court that a quick decision was imperative because the injunction would halt work that was “vitally required by national security.”
Officials have also said that a completed ballroom would host crucial diplomatic functions and that construction delays give foreign countries more time to gather intelligence on the White House complex.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation had urged Roberts not to pause the injunction. The group, in a filing, said that would cause irreparable harm because the ballroom will be substantially finished soon absent an injunction, and be virtually impossible to deconstruct once completed, citing administration statements.
