US court lets Trump resume work on US$400 million White House ballroom – for now

A US appeals court allowed President Donald ⁠Trump’s administration on ⁠Friday night to continue construction ⁠of a US$400 million ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing, setting a June hearing to review a Washington judge’s order halting the project.An order by a three-judge ‌panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the lower court’s preliminary injunction on hold for now, giving the panel time to consider the US Justice Department’s request for a longer pause while the appeal is pending.The appeals court ⁠said it would hear arguments on June 5 on whether construction should be ‌stopped during the appeal.US President Donald Trump holds up a rendering of the planned White House ballroom aboard Air Force One on March 29. Photo: ReutersThe order did not address the merits of the underlying lawsuit, which challenges the Trump ‌administration’s authority to build the ballroom.The National Trust for Historic Preservation, ⁠which filed the ⁠lawsuit last year, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment ‌after business hours.Friday’s ruling temporarily blocks a decision issued a day earlier by US District Judge ‌Richard Leon ‌in Washington, who said the ballroom project was unlawful without approval ‌from the U.S. Congress.Leon’s ruling on Thursday was in response to an appeals court’s instruction to clarify an earlier decision on the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-metre) ballroom.