Order Blocking White House Ballroom Construction Put on Hold

The DC Circuit temporarily put on hold a lower court’s preliminary injunction blocking construction of President Donald Trump‘s White House ballroom.

The administrative stay issued April 17 is to give the appeals court time to consider the administration’s emergency motion to keep the injunction on hold pending appeal, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in an April 17 order. It “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” a three-judge panel said.

The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for June 5.

Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia last week barred Trump from moving forward with above-ground work on the ballroom, rejecting arguments that the entire project was essential to national security.

The case is one of a handful seeking to halt Trump’s construction plans in various areas of the nation’s capital, including a proposed “triumphal arch” and and planned overhaul of the Kennedy Center.

The case is Nat’l Trust for Historic Pres. in the US v. Nat’l Park Serv., D.C. Cir., No. 26-5123, order 4/17/26