AP (“Appeals court rules Trump can’t build White House ballroom without congressional approval“):
A divided federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must stop construction of the $400 million White House ballroom because Congress has not approved the project, a decision he blasted as “unjust” while vowing to appeal it to the nation’s highest court.
Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom where the White House’s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall, according to the decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The Republican president said on social media that the administration will immediately appeal what he called an “unjust decision” to the U.S. Supreme Court.
[…]
In a 2-1 decision on the ballroom, the appeals court sided with historic preservationists who sued to stop construction of the massive structure, which has begun to rise above ground on the east side of the White House, according to the most recent aerial photos of the site. The court said it would stay its ruling for two weeks to give the administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court.
“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the court wrote.
“This holding has nothing at all to do with whether the proposed ballroom is desirable, or not, as a matter of policy. This ruling does not even necessarily mean that the Defendants may not ultimately construct the ballroom.
“What it does mean,” the court continued, “is that the Defendants may not do so during the district court’s expeditious litigation without securing Congress’s authorization, as the Constitution and laws require.”
The ruling would seem obvious from a plain reading of the Constitution. But, of course, the President has already demolished the existing structure. What choice, really, does Congress have but to finance construction?
I suppose they could require reconstructing it as it was. Or that the ballroom be smaller, so as to fit in better architecturally with the historic mansion. But, by simply knocking the old struture down without permission, Trump has achieved a fait accompli.
