Trump Gets Administrative Stay on Ballroom at Supreme Court

0:00Michael Popok:Are there five votes on the United States Supreme Court to allow Donald Trump to continue to build his ballroom, which he now conveniently labels as the military ballroom complex? It wasn't a military ballroom complex until the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Before that, it was just a giant ballroom where women's high heels wouldn't stick in the Rose Garden mud, according to Donald Trump. But now we've got an administrative stay issued by one of nine justices. The Chief Justice of the United States, Chief Justice Roberts, sits over all things that emanate from the District of Columbia. And there was a two-to-one decision on August the 7th, which ruled that Donald Trump could not build the ballroom, but gave the time for the Supreme Court to decide whether that was true or not.

0:48Michael Popok:and stopped and enjoined the ballroom construction, which according to filings by John Sauer, the Solicitor General of the United States and Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, is now 65 % complete with over 250 people working 20 hours a day, seven days a week. They're trying to outrace judicial review. Now, what does an administrative stay mean issued by one judge? Does that mean there are five votes on the United States Supreme Court to rule in favor of Donald Trump. I'm not so sure about that. And I'll break it down for you here to kick off Saturday morning on Legal AF. We all know about the ballroom.

1:27Michael Popok:Donald Trump destroyed the White House as we know it. Donald Trump bulldozed our memories and his public trust to live in but not destroy the White House. He knocked over one third of the White House, the East Wing, and on its wreckage is starting to build a 90 ,000 square foot ballroom, which is larger by far than at the adjoining adjacent buildings. And he said originally that he needed to do it because the White House needed a ballroom for state dinners and for women who were dancing. In fact, who could forget when Donald Trump first knocked over the White House? I mean, that's effectively what he did.

2:05Michael Popok:And what was his justification? Notice there's no mention of security or military industrial complexes. Play the clip. The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years you know they used to use a tent and uh they have a tent and the tent would go in a very low area because it's the only area that can handle a big tent and if it rained the rain would go over the woman's beautiful shoes with the high heels about six seven inches worth of water they'd be sitting in the water and people said would rather have that than a brand new this ballroom is going to be amazing also designed to handle the inauguration No, only after we get to the later filings with the appellate court and with Judge Leon, eight, nine months after the original filings last year, do we start seeing references to a military hospital complex being built under the ballroom and therefore the ballroom is just a shell and is really part of the integrated security system.

3:03Michael Popok:This started to turbocharge and ramp up after the White House correspondence fiasco at the Hilton in Washington. And then we start hearing Donald Trump talking like this. Play the clip. I didn't want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we're planning at the White House. It's actually a larger room and it's much more secure. It's drone proof. It's bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom. That's why Secret Service, that's why the military are demanding it. They've wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons. But today is a little bit different because today we need levels of security that probably nobody's ever seen before.

3:49Michael Popok:See the little change there? It's because he figured out, as he had at the beginning of his administration, If he calls everything a national security crisis, he can expand his powers and gives him more solid footing before courts. What he's trying to do, as the National Trust told the Supreme Court, is he's trying to outrun court supervision. He's trying to outrun the court oversight. The faster he builds, the less they can do about it. Get the building up, even though it's illegal, because they won't tear it down, will they? Well, they might. If it's illegal and it's ultra varres, doesn't matter what percentage is complete, it can get torn down.

4:33Michael Popok:But Trump's hoping that they'll find, oh, it's already up. You know, he already knocked over the Statue of Liberty. Who could forget that exchange with a lawyer, Yakov Roth, for the Department of Justice, who argued to Judge Millett for the Solicitor General's office that Donald Trump was free to knock over the Statue of Liberty. there's nothing to do, you could do about it if it already happens. So what does an administrative stay mean? How does that compare and contrast to a temporary restraining order or a final stay after the merits of the case have been decided? Supreme Court is made up of nine justices, right?

5:08Michael Popok:You got the chief judge, chief justice, and then you've got the other eight. Right now, the configuration is three on the moderate to liberal wing, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Ketanji Brown-Jackson. And then you got the big six who are either appointed by Donald Trump or align themselves with Trump and the presidency. Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Alito, and Thomas. Six to three. That's why a lot of these cases come down six to three. You need five to win. For a particular administrative state, it is not unusual. and does not mean that there are five votes to support the ballroom. Although if you listen to Donald Trump's social media postings, he doesn't really understand how the Supreme Court works, right?

5:57Michael Popok:Even though he's the only living president to ever attended one, an oral argument. The Supreme Court lets each judge decide for the circuits that they are responsible for, whether an administrative stay on a shadow docket kind of issue is going to be granted or not for a temporary period of time until the court as a whole, all nine, consider the merits of the case or the merits of the issue, which in this case is the Trump administration trying to block Judge Leon, Richard Leon's original order, allowing for below ground construction of the military hospital complex, but not for the ballroom because it violates the organic law and it violates congressional law and no president is allowed to knock over the White House and get away with it.

6:47Michael Popok:That's the easy way to put it. That decision by Judge Leon was affirmed on appeal two to one with Judge Millett and Judge Garcia for the D.C. Federal Appellate Court ruling in Judge Leon's favor and for the National Trust. and Judge Rayo, a Trumper who's trying out for the Supreme Court, voting to allow Donald Trump to build his giant monstrosity of a ballroom. They stayed their decision to allow the Supreme Court off the application to make their decision. Supreme Court asked for the National Trust to file their opposition to Donald Trump's emergency motion to block Judge Leon's injunction, which frankly has been stayed this entire time.

7:29Michael Popok:That's why there's 250 crew people working around the clock to build this structure. And Donald Trump cutting corners and doing things at an accelerated basis, what could go wrong? We've seen what happened on the National Mall, right, with the reflecting pool, which is now algae green, and huge pieces of floating liner. you know when Donald Trump tries to do things on the cheap and cuts quarters we know bad things happen but that's what they're trying to do because the injunction has been blocked this entire time and I was actually shocked when I read in the filings that 65 percent of the building or structure was done I think what they mean is that it kind of indicates the ballroom is the tail wagging the dog here the dog is below ground it's all of the work they're doing which they could cap off with something other than a ballroom and maybe rebuild the east wing Why do you need a ballroom?

8:25Michael Popok:Just rebuild the East Wing to match what you originally had. You don't need a giant ballroom on top of it, right?

8:34Michael Popok:So Judge Roberts, Justice Roberts, Chief Justice Roberts gets it because everything in the District of Columbia comes up to the Chief Justice. Just like things in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals come up to Judge Sotomayor and the Ninth Circuit, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson or Judge Kagan. And, you know, each of the, we have 12 total circuits and they're all assigned to different justices. Roberts has entered stays before, administrative stays for a short amount of time to allow the entirety of the Supreme Court, we call it the quorum, to make the ultimate decision. And sometimes they reverse that administrative stay because there's not five votes.

9:16Michael Popok:So I'm not sure how much we need to read into this. This is, however, of course, we've got Trump came out firing, and then the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, did also. Trump started to thank the Supreme Court. You know, the same Supreme Court he's constantly bashing. The military slash ballroom complex. Oh, here we go. Rewriting history. Being built on the hollowed grounds of the White House. You mean the hollowed grounds that you're desecrating? which is so vital for national security, will be the greatest of its kind. Whereas Chuck Schumer wrote, the MAGA Supreme Court is rubber stamping Trump's vanity-driven, gilded corruption as costs skyrocket.

10:00Michael Popok:The administration is wasting money on an endless and illegal war, corporate giveaways, in Trump's pet projects. Okay. Yeah, it's costing more than the$400 million Donald Trump allegedly raised from corporate finance contributions, probably closer to a billion dollars, including half a billion dollars or more of taxpayer dollars. But the issue for the Supreme Court is whether the National Trust is right, which I believe they are, that the White House sits in a national park, which is completely controlled by Congress, that the White House is itself a national monument and park that is regulated by Congress, and only Congress can make decisions about remodeling, about knocking over whole wings of the White House or the whole White House itself.

10:49Michael Popok:See, I would have liked Judge Millett or Judge Garcia to have asked the question at the oral argument of Yakov Roth, could he have knocked over the entire White House in the middle of the night? He's been on record as saying he He thought it was shabby, didn't want to live there. He lived in better housing when he was at Trump Tower in his triplex. Could he just knock over the whole thing? So they didn't get into that. I would have definitely gotten into that. But the question now is whether they're right, the National Trust, about the organic law, the separation of powers, who's in charge of national parks, who's in charge of the purse strings, or is Trump right?

11:27Michael Popok:Trump can't be right. Even Trump doesn't believe he's right. because as the record shows in his first administration, when he needed to replace a$2 ,700 fence, he went to Congress to get approval. So he goes to Congress for approval for a$2 ,700 fence, but for the complete demolition of a third of the White House and building a 90 ,000 square foot golden, you know, Ramada Inn ballroom, you know, like it's some sort of wedding facility, wedding catering hall. He does it on his own. I just don't get it. So we're going to follow this case closely. Within the next week coming up, we're going to know if there's five votes or not.

12:06Michael Popok:Because if this stay is granted by the quorum, that means he's got five votes to continue with that ballroom. But for right now, it's an administrative stay that could be reversed by the full panel. I wanted to keep you posted. You're here on Legal AF. Hit the free subscribe button. Until my next report later today, I'm Michael Popok. can't get your fill of Legal AF me neither that's why we formed the Legal AF sub stack every time we mention something in a hot take whether it's a court filing or a oral argument come over to the sub stack you'll find the court filing and the oral argument there including a daily roundup that I do call wait for it Morning AF what else all the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well we got some new reporting we got interviews we got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal AF on Substack.

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