Mark Paoletta@MarkPaoletta
President Trump’s Truths about this dangerous injunction hit the nail on the head. What is at stake is nothing less than the security of this Great White House and the power of the Presidency. All great Presidents have to deal with courts attempting to usurp their powers, but no President has come close to having to deal with the systematic assault by the courts on his Presidency than President Trump.
Big victory Friday with the DC circuit staying the district court’s egregious injunction until the Circuit court decides the issue, sometime after it hears oral argument on June 5th. Until then, the construction project for the Ballroom can proceed.
The President should take all lawful measures to overturn this district court judge’s LAWLESS injunction, including seeking an emergency petition to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Judge Neomi Rao’s Superb Dissent from the initial DC Circuit decision upholding the injunction is the roadmap to victory. This outrageous injunction is lawless and cannot continue.
First, the plaintiff in this case, National Trust for Historic Preservation of the United States, has NO STANDING in this matter. Courts are limited in jurisdiction to resolve cases or controversies, which require parties to show actual injury.
As Judge Rao explains, the National Trust literally has no legal interest in the White House, which is located on property within the National Park system. Pursuant to the Trust’s congressionally-authorized charter, the Trust may acquire real property for preservation purposes but is specifically prohibited from acquiring land in the National Park system.
Accordingly, the Trust has no injury whatsoever in anything to do with the Ballroom and the security improvements to the White House complex. The Trust has NO STANDING.
Even more absurdly, the Trust had one of its members, Alison Hoagland, who lives in DC and walks by the White House about once a month, file an affidavit claiming “I would suffer both professional and personal injuries, including to my aesthetic, cultural, and historical interests, if a ballroom of the proposed form and scale were constructed on the site of the former East Wing.” (emphasis added).
Allison Hoagland also filed a similar ludicrous declaration in the Kennedy Center lawsuit against President Trump.
More shocking, the District Court judge used this Hoagland declaration to bring construction on the White House grounds to a screeching halt. This is beyond absurd. As bad as DC Circuit standing precedents are (as Judge Rao notes, they are “sometimes quite capacious”), this district court judge’s allowing the so-called “personal injury” of one person having to LOOK at the new Ballroom is far beyond any existing precedent and shocking. It is a form of standing intended to allow a district court judge to absurdly and dangerously prevent this great project at the instigation of a private citizen who has appointed herself general overseer of the safety and aesthetics of our Nation’s capital.
Next, Judge Rao finds that the President is authorized by law to build this ballroom, and specifically pursuant to 3 U.S.C 105, which authorizes the President to use funds to make “improvements” to the White House. The district court judge wrongfully claims the President has no authority, and he misreads the word “improvements” in the statute.
As Judge Rao says, this term “improvements” in the context of real property easily encompasses building the ballroom.
Judge Rao also concludes the term must mean more than “ordinary maintenance and upkeep” (as the district court tries to argue), because the terms “maintenance” and “repair” are in the same section of the statute and they would be rendered meaningless.
The President is 100% authorized to build this Ballroom and the district judge’s opinion severely misinterprets the law.
Finally, it is truly disturbing that the district judge’s latest version of his injunction will continue to significantly impair the security of the White House and specifically the President’s security and his life. The judge allows the underground work to continue but prohibits the work on the above ground ballroom. The judge claims the President does not have authority to build but will allow building below ground??
As the government’s briefs make clear, this nonsensical “permission” makes no sense. The President must have authority to build it all now, as any delay represents a significant national security threat. The Ballroom forms a massive, steel-reinforced, impenetrable shield for the remainder of the White House Complex, including the East Room, Residence, and West Wing. It is worth quoting the government’s brief in full on this point.
“The Project is required for national security. It will shield the now exposed East Room of the Executive Mansion and provide best in class, modern security to the President and his family, his staff, and visitors. This ‘fixed structure’ - constructed using ‘threat-resistant materials’ include missile-resistant steel columns, military-grade venting, drone-proof ceilings, and bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass -- will form a fortified structural buffer protecting ‘both the main White House and West Wing.’ Together the ballroom and secure facilities throughout the Project -- including bomb shelters a state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities military installations and more -- form a single integrated complex unit that is vital for the national security of the United states for example features such as military grade ventilation systems are integrated for the whole project below ground and above making the project ‘a single coherent whole.’ Indeed, without the ballroom the underground portions of the project become significantly less useful and effective.”
This injunction, though stayed temporarily, must not be allowed to ever come back in force again, as it is reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous, especially where the district court lacks jurisdiction in the first place, there is full authorization to build this ballroom, and every day of delay constitutes irreparable harm to the President, and more importantly to his safety.
This lawless ruling cannot be allowed to stand. This lawsuit should be dismissed on standing grounds first and foremost. If the DC Circuit fails to correct this dangerous ruling, the Supreme Court must step in and wipe away this baseless standing ruling.
The Court should end, once and for all, bizarre standing rulings that allow any left-wing activist to file suit to try to stop the duly elected President from implementing his agenda and undermine national security.
