A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the White House to continue construction on a $400 million ballroom project as lawsuits play out, a win for President Donald Trump as he flexes unprecedented executive power and remakes the capital in his image.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, “I am pleased to report that the United States Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of the Ballroom/Military Complex being built without any further contingency, doubt, or threat.”

The apparent 5-4 decision replaces a temporary order issued earlier this month, shortly before a court-ordered halt would have gone into effect.

That temporary order was signed by Chief Justice John Roberts, assigned to handle appeals from the capital. But he publicly disagreed with the latest decision, writing a strong dissent that referenced the nation’s history and said the project is likely unlawful because it hasn’t been approved by Congress.

“Today’s decision is no victory for the separation of powers.” Roberts wrote. The court’s three liberal-leaning justices agreed.

The majority, on the other hand, found the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely did not have the legal right to challenge the project.

The unsigned order pointed to government arguments that the ballroom would address national security concerns by shielding a planned underground military installation and offering a more secure structure for large events than the tents currently used.

By contrast, “the only harm the Trust claims is the offense one of its members will suffer from having to view a structure of the ‘scale,’ ‘height,’ and ‘massing’ the government intends,” it states.

    • obvs@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Sure.

      But I remember in the 1990s being one of the people who was calling theses same people Nazis.

      It feels like Godwin owes the world an apology, because it sure would have been good to get to call those people out and not have everyone say they lost the argument, since it turns out that they literally were Nazis.

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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        8 hours ago

        Nope.

        It isn’t like Trump was hiding anything.

        People saw Trump for what he was and gleefully voted for him twice.

        Don’t try to point a finger at anyone except his voters.

        • obvs@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Except he tried to falsify vote totals in 2020, and we know this for a fact.

          And he tried to overthrow the government in 2021, and we all literally saw this on television.

          And he’s trying to falsify vote totals in 2026.

          And people are pretending that it’s perfectly reasonable to know all of those things and to still claim that we know with certainty that in 2024 he just sat by and didn’t try to do anything to falsify the data.

          In the middle of multiple documented instances of him doing so.