Supreme Court allows Trump to continue building White House ballroom

By Devan Cole, Betsy Klein, John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for President Donald Trump to continue construction of a massive new ballroom at the White House, rejecting a challenge from a preservation group that was seeking to indefinitely halt the controversial project.

The ruling was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberals dissenting.

In its unsigned, eight-page decision, the conservative majority concluded that the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely lacked the legal right — known as standing — to challenge the project. The justices did not say whether the ballroom project was, in fact, lawful.

The decision from the high court is a major victory for Trump and will likely give the president the time he needs to complete the project, even as the litigation over the ballroom continues. The administration has been racing ahead with work on the nearly 90,000 square foot ballroom, which he views as the foundation of his presidential legacy. Trump has said the ballroom is necessary for national security reasons because it will include state-of-the-art features intended to protect the White House from an attack.

Roberts, a member of the court’s conservative wing, penned the dissent, saying that the construction was “likely unlawful.”

“The White House is not just any building,” Roberts wrote. “In failing to appreciate as much, the court misconceives the plaintiff ’s injury, allowing the executive’s likely infringement of the legislature’s power of the purse and authority to regulate federal property in the District of Columbia to continue.”

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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