Judge Blocks Construction of Trump's 250-Foot Arch for 14 Days, Hours After Its Final Approval
The president's triumphal arch won its final planning approval late Thursday night - and a federal judge stopped any construction within the hour. The project is frozen for two weeks while the court weighs whether Congress ever authorized it.
President Donald Trump's proposed 250-foot triumphal arch cleared its last planning hurdle late Thursday and ran straight into a federal court order. The National Capital Planning Commission, one of the two federal agencies that oversee design changes in Washington, approved the arch by a vote of 8 to 4 around 10:29 p.m. Thursday, after more than eight hours of public testimony in which more than 120 citizens, many of them veterans, lined up to ask the panel to block it, CNN reported.
Within an hour of the vote, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted a temporary restraining order sought by the District of Columbia and Virginia, which had sued the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior on Oct. 31 to stop construction before it began. For 14 days, the order bars any construction, excavation, demolition, land-disturbing work, utility installation, roadway closures or other activity tied to building the arch at Memorial Circle on Columbus Island, at the Virginia end of Arlington Memorial Bridge, while the court considers the case. The timing mattered: the Justice Department had previously said an initial six to eight months of excavation and foundation work could begin as early as this week.
The legal fight turns on authorization. The District and Virginia argue the project is unlawful because Congress never authorized the monument, as the law governing commemorative works in the capital requires. The administration contends Congress approved an arch more than a century ago when it authorized a bridge across the Potomac. Chutkan shut down the government's reliance on that 1925-era claim and, according to The Wall Street Journal, called its argument that the arch serves a national-security purpose a 'belated and unsupported assertion' that did not change her analysis. She directed federal officials to notify employees, contractors and subcontractors that construction activity is prohibited, and to update the court by Nov. 9 on those efforts and certify compliance.
The arch, planned as a 250th-anniversary monument modeled on Paris's Arc de Triomphe, would stand more than 80 feet taller than its French counterpart and, per the Journal, carry gold statues on top, with six stairways, five elevators and an observation deck, over a build of about three years. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, one of the opponents who addressed the commission, said the project would 'snarl traffic for years, impact the nearby airport, and present even more serious threats to public safety.' President Trump, speaking Nov. 2 at an event on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, promoted the arch in different terms, saying it could house drones and snipers and adding, 'from a beautification standpoint, it'll be the most beautiful arch in the world.' The 14-day order is not a final ruling: a longer block sought by three Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian, who first sued in February, is still before the court.
