A federal judge has blocked construction of Donald Trump’s arch for 14 days after a final vote approving the structure passed late Thursday despite fierce opposition from citizens who voiced concern during a marathon public hearing.
The National Capital Planning Commission, one of two federal agencies that oversees architectural and design changes in Washington, gave the final green light to build the 250-foot monument at its virtual meeting on Thursday after more than 120 citizens, many of them veterans, lined up to plead with the panel to block the project.
Within an hour of its passage, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who is overseeing a high profile lawsuit to stop construction, ruled that the administration, the defendants in the case, would be prohibited from “initiating, making or otherwise effectuating” any “construction-related activity” near the proposed site of the arch.
Based on what has it been prohibited?
This initial TRO (temporary restraining order) is basically a 14-day pause while other stuff continues before the Court.
Oversimplified, the Plaintiffs basically go “Hey! Someone is doing a thing that we have a problem with! You need to stop them from starting, as the very act of starting causes us harm, in the legal sense of the word.” The Judge will eventually grant a fuller ruling, but the back and forth takes a while to make sure everyone doesn’t have to rush. The TRO is put in place to buy that time.
To grant a TRO, there are a few requirements that must be met.
The Judge’s decision is 33 pages long, and is based on various factors from several months of litigation on the topic. It’s a little long, but pretty easy to parse. If you’re inclined to read for yourself, there’s a link in the article. The TL;DR is that D.C., Virginia, a Vietnam Vets group, and a couple other interested parties all have various oppositions to the arch due to economic, traffic, safety, historic, etc. claims. Their harm is material, imminent, and frankly, the Government did a shit job of defending themselves.(A few days ago they went “But national security! It’s to protect the President!” and refused to elaborate.) So, the TRO is in effect.
The bostonglobe.com article that I just posted has that information. In short, harm to the plaintiffs and unrecoverable costs to DC and Virginia.
tis a poor article
Yeah I glanced over the article in search of a legal reason for the prohibition and it’s not really talked about. The concerns raised by the protestors further in the article seem to have more legal ammunition. Really strange.