"According to reports, the latest hearing made clear that the Department of Justice is still clinging to its argument that knocking down the East Wing to make room for a grotesque ballroom somehow qualifies as a mere "alteration." That thesaurus-based violence will not stand in Judge Leon's courtroom, he said calling the demo "an alteration... takes some brazen interpretation of the laws of vocabulary.""
"The White House, he reminded everyone, "is a special place," and this isn't swapping out a park bench at Yellowstone. Leon went even further, emphasizing a point that seems almost quaint in this litigation, that no matter how much cheap gold paint Donald Trump bathes the place in, he is not the owner of the White House, he's the current "steward" of an "an iconic""
In ongoing litigation brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Judge Richard Leon rejected the Department of Justice's characterization of the East Wing demolition as an alteration. The Trump administration proposed privately funding a $400 million ballroom without Congressional approval or oversight. Judge Leon criticized the government's interpretation as taking a brazen approach to vocabulary and law. He emphasized that the White House is a special place requiring stewardship, not comparable to routine national park maintenance. The judge rejected analogies between the White House and national parks, clarifying that the president serves as steward rather than owner of this iconic structure.
Read at Above the Law
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]