The Chief Justice Said It's Illegal. The Other Five Said Nobody's Allowed to Ask.
In December 2025, bulldozers demolished the entire East Wing of the White House to make way for a new ballroom — a roughly $300 million construction project undertaken without congressional authorization, without the historic-preservation review federal law normally requires, and without the president’s earlier promise that taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for it. A preservation group sued to stop it. On August 31, 2026, the Supreme Court let construction continue. Here’s the detail worth sitting with: the Court didn’t rule the project was legal. It ruled that the people suing weren’t allowed to ask. ...