A federal judge late Thursday blocked the Trump administration from breaking ground on a 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, issuing a 14-day temporary restraining order just hours after a federal planning commission approved the project.
Federal Panel Approves Arch After Long Hearing
The panel’s chairman, Mark Paoletta, who serves as general counsel for the White House Office of Management and Budget, opened the session by praising President Donald Trump’s vision. President Trump understands as president and a superb builder that it’s important to our national identity to display who we are through grand monuments,
Paoletta said, according to Yahoo.
The rendered design features a 166-foot main arch structure, an observation deck, and a roughly 60-foot winged figure flanked by two gold eagles, bringing the total height to 250 feet with three gold statues and an eternal flame at the top. The proposed structure is slated for Memorial Circle between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who sits on the planning panel, voted against the project and argued that the submitted plans lacked details regarding military uses previously touted by the administration. Supporters argued the arch would honor veterans and establish a grand ceremonial gateway, while opponents — including scores of citizens, local lawmakers, and military veterans — filled the public comment period to urge the commission to reject the plan.
The 12-member panel includes six members controlled by Trump and two congressional Republicans.
Court Intervention Halts Immediate Construction Plans
Prior to the vote, the Department of the Interior notified the court that Grunley Construction Company, a Maryland-based firm, might be arranging off-site preparations for construction mobilization, while paint lines marking potential digging locations were spotted on the grass of Memorial Circle.
BREAKING: A federal judge blocks U. S. President Donald Trump's administration from breaking ground on a towering memorial arch for 14 days, a major setback for one of the president's most prominent projects to remake Washington, D. C., in his vision. https://t.co/rhsF1wPsnY
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan noted in her opinion that the harm to plaintiffs is certain and that the administration was prepared to start construction almost immediately.
The sheer improbability that a 100-year-old statute would contain authority, unknown to every previous administration, to erect a 250-foot arch at a principal location in the Nation’s capital indicates how far Defendants must stretch to justify this project,
the judge wrote in her ruling, where she criticized the legal justification offered by the administration, which relied on a 1925 law authorizing a pair of 166-foot columns that were never built.
The 14-day freeze bars the government from initiating construction, excavation, or related preparatory work while legal challenges proceed. Chutkan ordered the government to submit a status report on Monday to verify compliance with the order, and further instructed the government to notify the court within one hour of any planning commission, Park Service, or Interior Department decision, and within 30 minutes of any activity related to preparation for construction on Memorial Circle.
Virginia Representative Don Beyer spoke out against the monument at a Thursday rally near the site, while the administration faced additional pushback from lawmakers such as Representative Jared Huffman, who called the project illegal.
Good to see Judge Chutkan swiftly bar the Trump Administration from moving forward with its illegal plans to ram this project through. Her injunction will properly restrain Trump’s rush to ignore and bypass the legal barriers, overwhelming opposition from the people most… https://t.co/5PUG3cW2YL
Earlier coverage: Judge Blocks Trump's Triumphal Arch Construction