President Donald Trump displays an image of the proposed Triumphal Arch on the South Lawn during the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, April 6, 2026 (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images).
Members of the Kennedy family have asked to join a lawsuit seeking to block what they call the “unlawful” construction of President Donald Trump’s proposed arch. They contend that the 250-foot structure would “permanently cast shadows” over the graves of their relatives and other “heroes who eternally rest at Arlington National Cemetery.”
In a motion filed by attorney Norman Eisen, the family argued that intervention is appropriate because it would allow them to present “facts and harms that are unique to the Kennedy family.” Those issues, the filing said, otherwise overlap legally and factually with claims brought by Vietnam War veterans, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.
Like the veteran plaintiffs, the nine Kennedy family members argue that placing the “equivalent of a twenty-five-story office building” at Memorial Circle would “obstruct[] a line of sight that was designed to represent the unification of the Nation following the Civil War and that has existed for nearly a century.”
“Allowing Agency Defendants to bypass the applicable statutory processes would countenance a situation in which politicians can build idiosyncratic pet projects first and answer lawsuits later,” the court filing stated. “The result would be exactly the sort of commemorative free-for-all that Congress determined was inappropriate for our carefully planned national capital.”
The plaintiffs asked Chutkan to bar the National Park Service and Department of the Interior defendants “from taking any steps to construct, or to direct, facilitate, or authorize construction of, any structure in Memorial Circle, absent congressional authorization, during the pendency of this litigation.”
Last week, the judge rejected the administration’s argument that Congress had authorized the arch more than a century ago. Chutkan also questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claims that the project presented a “generational national defense opportunity.”
CONTINUE READING: Oklahoma Highway Mystery Deepens After Eerie New Incident Near Site Where Noah Presgrove Was Found Dead
“[T]hese recent and unsupported attestations of security aspects of a structure that has been extensively discussed over the last year appear nowhere in the planning documents on which the project was reviewed and approved,” Chutkan wrote.
An artistic rendering of the proposed arch shared by Secretary Doug Burgum (Department of Interior).
Trump has said the arch would “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers.”
Late Tuesday, the judge directed the Trump administration defendants to say whether they oppose the Kennedy family members’ request to intervene.
Rory and Maxwell Kennedy said in a statement on behalf of the family that they believe the president has “violated the laws and procedures established by Congress to protect this most sacred national memorial.”
“In bringing this lawsuit, we stand for those who cannot stand for themselves,” the statement said. “Americans from every corner of the country visit Arlington to honor those who served and sacrificed for our nation. A towering arch casting shadows across the graves of our father, mother, and uncles, as well as the graves of so many who have served our country, would also cast a shadow over our democratic principles, undermining the safeguards established by our elected representatives to protect this hallowed ground for generations to come.”
The post Trump’s “unlawfully-created” arch would “literally” cast shadows over the “Kennedy family’s sacred gravesites” and must be stopped, according to court documents, first appeared on Law & Crime.
