The US Supreme Court has ruled that construction of a $400m (£297m) ballroom at the White House can go ahead, handing a win to President Donald Trump.
In a 5-4 ruling, the justices granted the Trump administration’s emergency request, blocking lower court rulings that would have halted construction of an above-ground portion of the project.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the legal challenge, arguing that the president did not have unilateral authority to proceed with construction.
Trump demolished the historic East Wing of the executive residence last autumn to begin building the ballroom.
On Friday, the high court had temporarily allowed construction of the White House ballroom to move forward.
Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay, allowing the ballroom project, which includes a military complex, to continue while the high court considered the lawsuit aiming to halt it entirely.
On Monday, it was Roberts, a conservative, who sided with the three dissenting liberal justices to write that “construction is likely unlawful”.
The dissenting justices said that Congress “has explicitly prohibited” the construction of any building or structure on federal grounds in the capital “without express authority of Congress”.
They added that the legislative branch had “not passed any law resembling ‘express authority’ for the Executive’s construction of it”.
In the unsigned order, the five judges who cleared the way for construction said the Trump administration had established that it was likely to succeed in arguing that it would “suffer irreparable harm without a stay, and that the balance of equities tips in its favor”.
“Beginning with the merits, the government is likely to prevail in showing that the Trust lacks standing to challenge the East Wing project,” they wrote.
Trump has long argued that the White House needs a larger events space, and more recently, that it was important for his security.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation argued that construction was causing irreversible damage to a historical landmark.
