Judge clears White House ballroom construction

A federal judge cleared President Donald Trump’s ballroom construction for the time being.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled against the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s lawsuit to halt its construction on procedural grounds, not its merits. He argued that the plaintiffs had wrongly invoked the Administrative Procedure Act, as the law only applies to agencies, with the White House not being an agency. He invited the plaintiffs to amend their lawsuit, something they agreed to do.