The Daily Fuckup

A federal appeals court on April 11 kept White House ballroom construction moving, at least for the moment, while sending one piece of the fight back to the trial court. The panel said the judge who first halted the work should reconsider the government’s national-security arguments before the project is stopped again.

The order did not settle the underlying dispute over the demolition and rebuilding work at the White House. It preserved the existing pause through April 17, giving the administration time to ask the Supreme Court to intervene while the lower court re-examines the security issue.

The case centers on whether the White House followed the right review process before tearing down part of the East Wing for the ballroom project. Opponents say the work should have gone through normal approval channels first. The administration has argued that a shutdown could leave security problems unresolved for longer.

For now, the ruling keeps the project in motion and leaves the broader legal question open. The trial court will now have to take another pass at how much weight to give the government’s security claim, while the separate deadline for emergency Supreme Court review continues to run.