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He works in the ballroom that President Trump started in October must stop until the administration shares its plans with the organizations it is constitutionally and legally bound to work with, the National Trust for Historic Preservation. says in a lawsuit was filed in federal district court last week.
“No president is legally authorized to tear down parts of the White House without any review,” the organization, appointed by Congress in 1949 to oversee the nation’s historic architecture, said in its court filing. “And no president is legally authorized to build a ballroom on public property without giving the public an opportunity to intervene.”
The suit alleges that President Trump violated Article IV of the Constitution, on the separation of powers, by acting without input from Congress. “Congress’s power over federal property is exclusive,” the lawsuit says. “Nothing in the Constitution gives the president overriding authority to dispose of federal property. As a result, only Congress can authorize the demolition or construction of federal buildings.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the real estate branch of the federal government, the General Services Administration, and two other agencies responsible for federal property, the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior, along with their directors, violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The law requires agencies, when working on projects in Washington, DC, to conduct an environmental assessment and publish an environmental impact statement about the project. They also must get approval from the National Capitol Planning Commission and a review from the Commission on Fine Arts after a period of review and public comment before making changes to federal buildings.
The lawsuit seeks to “enforce the defendants to comply [these] procedural requirements,” he says.
The White House has rejected the demand. “President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate and beautify the White House, as all his predecessors did,” White House spokesman David Ingle said. he told CNBC.
Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said the organization reached out to the administration about how the project was progressing, but was met with silence. “The National Trust was forced to make this case,” she said in a press release.
The lawsuit is the latest skirmish between preservation organizations and the administration over how the White House is treating federal properties. In November, Cultural Heritage Partners sued to stop President Trump to paint and make renovations to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House without first submitting the plans for public review and comment. The lawsuit was dropped this week after GSA said it would not perform any work before March 1 next year.
“Cultural Heritage Partners … accepted assurances from the General Services Administration” about the delay, Roll call reported.
In a statement filed last week as part of that lawsuit, a former GSA official said the administration appeared to be preparing the demolition of four historically significant federal buildings in Washington, raising the possibility that preservationists will file another lawsuit to stop that action as well.
GSA “does not have the president’s actions under control,” Gregory Werkheiser, one of the legal partners at Cultural Heritage Partners, told the federal judge during a hearing on the Eisenhower Building.
The judge in the ballroom case is scheduled to hold a hearing today on the work stoppage request, Reuters reported.
