Judge orders 14-day pause on Trump arch construction
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan halted work on the 250-foot structure in Washington D.C. following a close vote by the National Capital Planning Commission.
By Matthew Collins ·
A federal judge has temporarily stopped the government from starting construction on President Donald Trump's proposed arch in Washington D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued an order Friday just before midnight, barring any building activity for 14 days. The ruling grants a request from the governments of the District of Columbia and Virginia. This decision halts work that administration officials had planned to begin immediately.
The arch will stand in Memorial Circle, a traffic island connecting the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery. It will measure 250 feet tall. The administration stated that construction would occur 20 hours a day, seven days a week, for a period of two to three years. Local officials argued that such an intensive schedule would cause immediate financial and logistical disruptions to the area.
Chutkan’s decision came less than two hours after the National Capital Planning Commission voted 8-4 to approve the project. The commission held a nearly nine-hour virtual meeting where 131 people signed up to speak. Veterans, lawmakers, and residents raised concerns about the structure's legality, cost, and impact on the view of Arlington National Cemetery. The commission approved the plans despite objections from D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, who proposed a motion to postpone the vote until early December. That motion failed 4-8.
The judge questioned the administration's legal basis for the project. The government argued that a 1925 congressional act authorized the structure, allowing it to bypass modern environmental and historic preservation laws. Chutkan wrote that it is improbable a century-old statute contained hidden authority to build a large arch in the capital without prior notice. She also scrutinized the administration's sudden emphasis on national security, noting that recent security claims did not appear in the original planning documents.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the arch as a dual-purpose structure for national monument and homeland defense. However, Interior Department official Greg Wischer told the commission that specific national security functions were filed under seal and that the National Park Service was not informed of these details. The administration’s website, launched Friday morning, states that the arch will include areas for snipers and drone launching. Critics note this mirrors the administration's use of national security justifications for the White House ballroom.
The case stems from lawsuits filed earlier this year by Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian. They argue the arch requires new congressional approval, which the administration has not sought. D.C. and Virginia joined the challenge last weekend. Chutkan consolidated the cases and asked the government to notify her within an hour of the commission's approval. The 14-day pause allows the court time to review the project further before deciding whether to allow construction to proceed.
The White House website calls the project the Military Triumphal Arch. It features a video of the completed structure and describes it as a solemn entrance to Arlington. The site argues the project was delayed by the Great Depression but is now being realized. Historic preservationists maintain that the open space in Memorial Circle was intentionally left empty to preserve historic sightlines between key monuments.
