DOJ Says Judge Must End 48-Hour Notice Order on Trump Arch

Vietnam War veterans have asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to preserve a requirement that the administration provide 48 hours’ notice before taking further steps toward building President Donald Trump’s proposed “Great Triumphal Arch” at Memorial Circle.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama who previously oversaw special counsel Jack Smith’s now-dismissed Jan. 6 case against then-candidate Trump, issued the notice order about a week and a half ago. The plaintiffs, including an architectural historian and military veterans, said they feared the executive branch could push ahead before their legal challenge was resolved, potentially repeating the events surrounding the president’s ballroom project.

Veterans Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes and Jon Gundersen, along with architectural historian Calder Loth, asked Chutkan for a temporary restraining order. They cited Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s Sept. 3 post, in which he said the administration was “preparing to start over the next two-week period” the excavation needed for the proposed Great Triumphal Arch and Military Observation Deck. The work would take place at Memorial Circle on Columbia Island, between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, and would proceed without congressional authorization, the plaintiffs said.

The plaintiffs said they regularly visit the area to appreciate the reciprocal views between the cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. They argued that the proposed arch would cause “profound harm” by disrupting a symbolic landscape with deep personal significance and destroying an unobstructed sight line intended to represent the nation’s reunification after the Civil War.

The day after Burgum’s post, Chutkan said she had reviewed the request for a temporary restraining order and directed the government to give the court 48 hours’ notice before breaking ground.

“Defendants shall provide the court with 48 hours’ notice,” Chutkan wrote in a minute order, before undertaking any activity at Memorial Circle other than on-site information gathering about archaeological resources beneath the present-day fill surface of Columbia Island. Such work must be necessary to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act and other applicable laws.

The judge also warned that construction or demolition carried out before the National Park Service issues a final agency decision authorizing the project, or without 14 days’ notice, would violate both her order and an earlier consent order.

The Justice Department subsequently asked Chutkan to dissolve the order or clarify its scope, arguing that the 48-hour requirement had already interfered with public safety and routine park maintenance.

“The Court should dissolve its unlawful and unwarranted 48-hour hold on routine agency actions that cause no harm to Plaintiffs,” the government argued, saying the order improperly intruded on the executive branch’s authority to maintain property under its control.

On Friday, the plaintiffs responded, urging Chutkan not to allow the DOJ to “avoid the consequences” of Burgum’s public statements. They also emphasized that, unlike the ballroom dispute, construction of the arch has not started.

“Contending that the exigent situation that prompted this Court’s intervention was manufactured by Plaintiffs, Defendants ask this Court to dissolve the order’s 48-hour notice requirement or to ‘clarify’ it in a way that would leave it without force,” the plaintiffs wrote. “Defendants’ arguments are meritless, and this Court should deny their motion.”

The post Trump’s Jan. 6 judge “interfered” and must “dissolve” order requiring 48 hours’ notice on “Great Triumphal Arch,” DOJ says first appeared on Law & Crime.