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Supreme Court Case TrackerThe Court, in plain English

Emergency application

White House ballroom construction

National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States

Granted
No. 26A203Stay applicationFiled by the federal governmentPresented to The Chief JusticeFrom United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

What did the Court do?

The Court granted the request on August 31, 2026: the lower court's ruling is on hold while the appeal continues.

Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. The Chief Justice, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson would have ruled the other way.

Filed Ruled 18 days after filing

What's being asked

The federal government asks the Supreme Court to pause an injunction from a Washington, D.C., federal court while it seeks review. The injunction restricts above-ground work on a project to replace the White House East Wing, including a ballroom and underground military installation. The Trust challenges the project; the government says the Trust lacks the legal right to sue and that law authorizes the project.

What the Court did

The Court gave the government emergency help: it paused (stayed) the district court’s injunction; it did not decide who wins the underlying dispute. The pause lasts until the Court acts on the government’s timely review request; if it hears the case, the pause continues until judgment. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson dissented (disagreed with the result); the order gives no vote count.

  • Dissented
  • Wrote separately
  • Vote not published
Dissenting · 4recorded against the Court's order
  1. Robertswrote a dissent
  2. Sotomayorjoined Roberts's writing
  3. Kaganjoined Roberts's writing
  4. Jacksonjoined Roberts's writing
Vote not published · 5the order does not say how they voted
  1. Thomas
  2. Alito
  3. Gorsuch
  4. Kavanaugh
  5. Barrett
The order records the positions of 4 of 9 justices. The Court usually does not say how each justice voted on an emergency application, so the rest are shown as not published.
Half of 76 rulings on applications where the Court asked for a response came 12 to 26 days after filing, and the median was 17 days; this one was ruled on 18 days after filing.

What it means

The emergency pause is temporary and does not decide who wins the underlying dispute. With the injunction paused, the government can continue above-ground construction; the case remains in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. There is no related Supreme Court case on the underlying legal questions, and no argument is set.

Separate writings

  • Justice Roberts, joined by Justice Jackson, Justice Kagan, and Justice Sotomayor, dissenting

    Read (PDF)

Sources

Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 26A203. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.

Checked October 5, 2026