A federal judge blocked construction on Donald Trump’s 250-foot triumphal arch late Thursday, hours after planners greenlit the monument, as legal challenges mounted over its impact on Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a 14-day temporary restraining order halting any construction-related activity on the project, siding with a group of Vietnam veterans, Washington, D.C., and Virginia who sued to stop it. The ruling arrived just after the National Capital Planning Commission voted 8-4 to approve final site and building plans following a nine-and-a-half-hour hearing.
In her 33-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan determined that the plaintiffs are likely to demonstrate that the federal government failed to follow mandatory legal processes before moving forward with the 250-foot triumphal arch. The judge directed the government to submit a status report to ensure compliance with the order.
The National Capital Planning Commission panel’s chair, Mark Paoletta, launched the meeting with a gushing appraisal of the towering monument and lauded Trump for wanting to build it. Paoletta argued that the structure represents a national identity through grand monuments and said that great cities around the world feature arches, pointing to Paris, Rome, and London.
Paoletta also argued it was a national disgrace that a memorial arch had not been placed at the site previously, citing a 1925 law that he claimed designated such a memorial. However, Judge Chutkan rejected that argument in her ruling, stating that the sheer improbability of a 100-year-old statute containing unknown authority to build a 250-foot arch indicates how far the defendants must stretch to justify the project.
Commissioner Phil Mendelson sought clarity on the arch’s purpose during the proceedings before casting a vote. Mendelson said that without specificity, he could not judge whether the site, scale, and form fit the purpose, and said that the plan submitted to the commission omitted the military uses cited by the president and other administration officials.
Following the hearing, the commission reported receiving more than 1,300 public comments about the project, with the vast majority in opposition.
Kennedy Family Members Sue to Block Monument Location
Nine members of the Kennedy family moved to intervene in the litigation, filing a lawsuit to block the monument over concerns that its location on Memorial Circle would cast shadows over nearby gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery. “a line of sight that was designed to represent the unification of the nation following the Civil War that has existed for nearly a century” was the obstruction the complainants argued the arch's location on Memorial Circle in Washington DC would cause, according to the filing.
The family members seeking to block the project include Rory Kennedy, Maxwell Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Courtney Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph Kennedy II, Joseph Kennedy III, and Edward M. Kennedy Jr. Represented by veteran Washington lawyer Norm Eisen and the Democracy Defenders Fund, the relatives argued that building the arch would permanently denigrate the gravesites and fundamentally alter the experience of visiting them.
“This action is about protecting sacred spaces that belong to the American people,” Rory Kennedy and Maxwell Kennedy said in a statement released on behalf of the family.
The family said that their parents, Robert and Ethel Kennedy, as well as their uncles, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, are laid to rest at the cemetery alongside more than 400,000 veterans and family members.
A Washington Post analysis found that the arch’s shadow would touch burial sites in the cemetery on 284 days a year, pass over more than 75,000 graves, and briefly fall on the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame on 18 days annually. Former Congressman Joe Kennedy III, appearing on CNN, criticized the scheme and said that a president does not get to sidestep the process laid out by Congress just to build a building.
Mark Paoletta defended the monument at last week’s hearing, arguing that grand monuments are essential to national identity.
Trump Describes Military Capabilities of the Triumphal Arch
While the planning commission documents omit military specifications, President Donald Trump stated in September that the structure would also serve as a top-grade military complex capable of housing drones and snipers.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that the triumphal arch would provide the rapid ability to deploy large numbers of drones, station snipers on both the roof and plaza areas, and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage.
Lawyers for the Justice Department declined to provide additional details about these national security features during an October hearing. Plaintiffs argued in court filings that these unsupported security attestations never appeared in the official planning documents and materialized only when the defendants filed their opposition brief.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle criticized the court intervention in a statement to Fox News Digital. “It is unfortunate to see that some members of the Kennedy family have joined the litigation against the Arch as the project is intended to honor our heroes who rest in Arlington Cemetery,” Ingle said.
“We will continue making the case for this beautiful and fitting monument and are confident we will be fully vindicated as this litigation proceeds.”
Earlier coverage: Judge Blocks Trump's Triumphal Arch Construction