#appeals-court — Trump Fail

A Week After Two Courts Ruled He Was Demolishing the People's House Without the Authority to Do It, Trump Got What He Wanted From the Supreme Court: Chief Justice Roberts Issued a Stay Letting Construction of His $400 Million East Wing Ballroom Keep Going — Overriding, For Now, the Judges Who Said a President Cannot Tear Down and Rebuild the White House Without Congress

On August 21, 2026, Chief Justice John Roberts granted a temporary stay allowing Trump to continue building his 90,000-square-foot, $400-million-plus ballroom on the site of the demolished White House East Wing — putting on hold, for now, the lower-court rulings that had ordered the aboveground work stopped. The legal challenge, brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, argues that the president had no authority to unilaterally demolish part of the White House and erect a massive new structure without congressional approval. A federal district court agreed, finding Trump exceeded his authority, and a divided appeals court affirmed it earlier in August. Rather than go to Congress — the branch the Constitution actually charges with funding and authorizing such things — the administration ran to the Supreme Court's shadow docket, and Roberts, handling the emergency application, blocked the lower courts' order while the justices decide what to do next. The stay is provisional and procedural, not a ruling that the demolition was lawful. But its practical effect is immediate and hard to reverse: the bulldozers and cranes keep working while the courts deliberate, and every day of construction makes the finding that he never had the authority harder to give any teeth. This is the next beat in a saga the archive has tracked from the first judge's order ("the President is not the owner") through the DOJ's shadow-docket gambit — a president reshaping the nation's most symbolic public building on his own say-so, and the courts, so far, letting him.

Trump and the Justice Department Asked the Supreme Court to Erase the $83.3 Million He Owes E. Jean Carroll for Defaming Her — Arguing That Calling His Sexual-Abuse Accuser a Liar Was an "Official Act" of the Presidency He Can't Be Sued For, and Putting Government Lawyers on His Personal Defense

On July 28, 2026, Trump and the U.S. Department of Justice separately asked the Supreme Court to throw out the $83.3 million a jury ordered him to pay writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her — when, in 2019, as president, he denied her account that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s and called her a liar. Their argument: presidential immunity. Because the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling held that "most of a President's public communications" are official acts, Trump's lawyers claim his 2019 statements branding Carroll a liar were official presidential acts for which he cannot face personal civil liability. A federal appeals court had already rejected this, affirming the award as "reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts" and finding Trump had waived any immunity claim by raising it too late. Two things make it a scandal, not just an appeal. First, the Justice Department — taxpayer-funded government lawyers — joined to defend the president's personal liability for defaming the woman a separate jury found he sexually abused. Second, the theory itself: that a president is immune from being sued for defaming his own sexual-assault victim because insulting her from the White House podium was part of the job. Trump is asking the Court to rule that the presidency is a shield not just for governing, but for smearing the people who accuse him of assault.

Trump Makes Emergency Demand to Keep His Name on the Kennedy Center — Gets Rejected Twice — Workers Peel It Off Overnight as Crowds Chant "Take It Down"

On the June 12 deadline to remove Trump's name from the Kennedy Center, the administration filed emergency motions to delay — rejected by Judge Cooper, then rejected again by the D.C. Circuit appeals court at 7:15 PM. At midnight, the name was still up and the board was in contempt. They blamed thunderstorms and asked for 12 more hours. Beatty's attorneys called it "a manufactured emergency" and "gamesmanship." Hundreds gathered on the plaza in 110°F heat, chanting "take it down." A drag queen paraded with bubble machines. Jim Acosta led chants. A double rainbow appeared after the appeals court ruling. One man begged workers: "Start with the T!" At 12:50 AM, tarps went up — the crowd booed, denied the satisfaction of watching. By 4 AM Saturday, workers had pried off the 18 letters spelling "The Donald J. Trump and." It lasted six months. Trump posted he had "no interest" in continuing "what could only be a hopeless journey into NEVER NEVER LAND."

Trump's DOJ Opens Criminal Investigation Into E. Jean Carroll — The Woman a Jury Found He Sexually Assaulted

The DOJ launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll — the woman two juries found Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming, awarding her $88.3 million total. The perjury theory: Carroll said in a 2022 deposition that no one else was funding her lawsuit, but LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman later helped cover some legal costs through a nonprofit. An appeals court already reviewed this and found Carroll "plausibly represented" she had "forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained." Trump's DOJ is now criminally investigating his own sexual assault victim over a deposition answer an appeals court already dismissed.