The lawsuit appears to be the first legal challenge to Trump’s grand ballroom plan, but others have already raised concerns over the project. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, for instance, recently sent a letter to the National Park Service expressing its own reservations.
A Virginia couple has filed a lawsuit claiming that President Donald Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House is unlawful.
According to POLITICO, the lawsuit was filed earlier this week on behalf of Virginia residents Charles and Judith Vorhees. In court documents, submitted to a Washington, D.C.-based federal court, the couple requested that Trump be prevented from further damaging the White House.
The motion seeks a temporary restraining order against the demolition, one of the first steps in the construction of Trump’s controversial—and incredibly expensive—state ballroom.
The lawsuit names Trump and national Park Service Director Jessica Brown as defendants, and claims that the destruction of an entire wing of the White House violates provisions of the National Capital Planning Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.
Furthermore, the couple allege that any demolition or extensive renovation should have been first reviewed by the Commission of Fine Arts.
Mark Denicore, the attorney who filed the motion, said he believes that many other Americans—not just his clients—are disgruntled by Trump’s seemingly-unilateral decision to remake one of the highest-profile and best-known buildings in the world.
“I feel like a lot of people want to do something about this, but nothing seems to be happening,” Denicore said. “I threw that together as fast as I could to try to get it filed as fast as I could.”
POLITICO notes that it is not yet certain how, if at all, the Vorheeses will be able to establish the legal standing necessary to challenge the Trump administration.
“They’re just people, U.S. citizens, that don’t like their house being torn down without going through proper procedures,” Denicore said.
The White House, in response to the filing, maintains that the changes are fully complaint with all applicable local and federal laws.
“President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House—just like all of his predecessors did,” White House spokesperson David Ingle said in a statement.
The lawsuit appears to be the first legal challenge to Trump’s grand ballroom plan, but others have already raised concerns over the project. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, for instance, recently sent a letter to the National Park Service expressing its own reservations.
“We respectfully urge the Administration and the National Park Service to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes,” National Trust for Historic Preservation President and Chief Executive Carol Quillen wrote, claiming that the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom “will overwhelm the White House,” which itself occupies only about 55,000 square feet.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House’s press secretary, has described these concerns as “fake outrage, telling FOX News that “nearly every single president who has lived in this beautiful White House […] has made modernizations and renovations of their own.”
Sources
A Virginia couple is asking a judge to block Trump from tearing up the East Wing
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