Supreme Court allows White House ballroom construction to continue

The Supreme Court on Friday, August 21, 2026, temporarily allowed construction to continue on President Donald Trump's planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House, issuing an administrative stay that halted lower court orders which would have forced work to stop later that day. Chief Justice John Roberts signed the brief, one-sentence order, which does not resolve the underlying legal dispute but gives the justices more time to consider the Trump administration's request to pause the rulings indefinitely. The stay, issued without explanation as is typical for such emergency actions, puts on hold a preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge Richard Leon and an August 7 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The appeals court, in a divided 2-1 decision, had upheld Leon's order requiring a halt to aboveground construction starting August 21, citing the lack of congressional authorization for the project. The panel majority stated that "whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive selfhelp.