The Trump administration is currently awaiting several rulings from the Supreme Court on its emergency docket, including requests to resume construction of a White House ballroom and to implement an executive order regarding mail-in voting. On Friday, the administration asked the court to pause a lower-court ruling that had halted the ballroom project, while the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit challenging the construction, filed a response on Tuesday urging the court to keep the block in place.
These filings follow a series of recent actions by the executive branch and federal courts concerning immigration and voting procedures. On July 27, the administration sought emergency clearance to enforce an executive order on citizenship verification for mail-in voting, a move supported by 12 states but opposed by a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia. Additionally, following the Supreme Court's June ruling in Mullin v. Doe, lower courts have begun lifting protections for individuals under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy lifted an order that had protected approximately 5,000 Ethiopian nationals from deportation, citing the Supreme Court’s precedent regarding TPS for Haitian and Syrian nationals. While the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, James Percival, stated that all TPS terminations are now in effect, the judge noted that the Ethiopian nationals may continue to litigate claims that the termination was motivated by racial or national origin bias.
For the approximately 5,000 Ethiopian nationals previously protected by TPS, the lifting of the judicial block means they are now at risk for deportation. This change follows the termination of similar protections for Haitian and Syrian nationals. These individuals may continue to face legal uncertainty as they litigate claims under the Fifth Amendment, but they no longer have a stay preventing their removal from the country. This sets a precedent for how the executive branch can terminate humanitarian protections for specific national groups following the Mullin v. Doe decision.
In the ballroom dispute, a ruling in favor of the administration would allow construction to proceed on the White House grounds, which the National Trust for Historic Preservation argues would result in the permanent alteration of a historic site. Critics, such as former White House counsel Gregory Craig, argue that expedited construction could make the project "virtually impossible to deconstruct" if a later court finds it illegal. The Supreme Court has not yet set a date for these decisions, but the administration has requested that the court act "promptly" on the voting case.