The US Supreme Court on Saturday temporarily allowed construction of President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom at the White House to continue, putting on hold a court order that would have stopped the work. The order, issued by Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday, does not rule on whether the project is lawful.

Instead, it gives the Supreme Court more time to consider the Trump administration’s request to suspend lower court rulings that said construction could not proceed without approval from Congress.

The appeals court had ordered work to stop from midnight on Friday.

Roberts did not set a new deadline, meaning construction can continue until the Supreme Court issues a further order. Because the decision was an administrative stay issued by the chief justice, it did not include an explanation, vote count or dissent. Roberts is expected to refer the case to all nine justices.

Construction Moves Ahead

The Trump administration told the Supreme Court that construction was progressing rapidly, with a 250-person crew working 20 hours a day, seven days a week. It said the ballroom complex was “65% complete in its entirety”.

The administration has argued that the project is necessary for national security, citing previous attempts on the president’s life, as well as the need for a large event space at the White House.

Trump has described the project in expansive terms. “This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world. There won’t be anything like it,” he said in August. The president has also suggested that opponents of his construction projects are “very disloyal to our country”.

The ballroom is part of a wider effort by Trump to reshape parts of Washington since returning to office last year.

The project involves the former East Wing of the White House, which was demolished last year to make way for the new event space.

Courts Say Congress Must Approve Project

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued the administration in December, arguing that the ballroom could not be built without congressional approval. A federal judge in Washington DC subsequently ordered construction to stop.

Judge Richard Leon allowed work to continue on a sophisticated bunker beneath the proposed ballroom, after the Trump administration argued that the two projects were separate.

The administration later increasingly argued that the wider structure was needed for national security. In August, a divided appeals court upheld the order requiring construction of the ballroom to stop. “Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the court said in its 2-1 ruling.

“The National Trust has shown, compellingly, that Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House – the People’s House – to fit a particular President’s desires,” it added.

The Trump administration then asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

US Solicitor General D John Sauer argued that the president had authority to renovate and protect the White House and described the lower court’s decision as “judicial overreach”.

“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception,” Sauer wrote.

The administration has also questioned whether the National Trust has the legal right, or standing, to bring the case.

Lower courts have found that the organisation has standing because one of its members, Alison Hoagland, says the project affects her enjoyment of the White House as an architectural historian.

Trump has rejected that argument. “The woman has absolutely no standing,” he said this week.

The administration’s court filings have also revealed how quickly construction has progressed.

Sauer said workers were spending “20 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep the project ahead of schedule and under budget”. He also said some of the concrete being used was similar to material used at nuclear power plants and was nearly impossible to deconstruct.

The National Trust has argued that the administration is attempting to “outrun judicial review” by moving ahead with a project that could eventually be difficult to reverse.

“Nothing in the district court’s carefully tailored injunction prevents them from continuing work on the bunker, securing the East Wing site, or ensuring the safety of the President, his family, and staff,” the Trust’s lawyers wrote. “All the injunction stops is construction of a ballroom without prior congressional approval. Petitioners have not – and cannot – show that being temporarily unable to build that ballroom demands emergency relief.”

Cost of Project Rises

The cost of the ballroom has also increased during the legal dispute. The administration initially estimated the project at $200m. Trump later said it would cost “about $300 million”. This month, he said that “$400 million almost” had already been spent.

The Washington Post obtained internal contracts and documents putting the cost of changes to the wider White House complex, including the Rose Garden and a helipad, at about $900m.