Virginia and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in federal court on Saturday in a last-ditch effort to block construction of the Memorial Circle Arch in Washington.
The Trump administration said it plans to begin construction on the arch next week, November 5.
“Construction of the Arch will cause direct and irreparable harm to the District and the State of Virginia,” Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones and Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in the lawsuit. “The Arch is planned to be built on a busy traffic circle adjacent to the boundary between jurisdictions, in the center of the historic horizon, and on a river on which the District has a legal responsibility to protect its environment.”
“Both the construction of the Arch and the completed monument will disrupt the operations of both jurisdictions, impair their ability to carry out their duties under federal and local laws, and require the expenditure of significant resources to mitigate and address these impacts,” they added.
The attorneys general wrote that their request to stop construction was urgent.
“It is entirely foreseeable that once construction begins, the defendants will argue, as they have done in other cases, that an order to stop construction would cause irreparable harm to the federal government, create safety risks, and not allow for changes to the status quo they unilaterally created,” they said. “The court should not allow this cynical tactic to succeed.”
Jones and Schwalb added that they believe the administration violated the Memorial Works Act by circumventing specific authorizations from Congress and violated the Building Height Act by constructing an arch that is more than 130 feet tall. They also allege violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.
“Virginia is extremely proud to be home to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for generations of American heroes who have given their lives defending our country,” Jones said in a statement Saturday. “President Trump’s illegal vanity project is an insult to this sacred site and the extraordinary sacrifice it represents.”
Schwalb said in a separate statement, “The construction of the Arch is blatantly illegal and will cause severe, immediate and irreparable harm to the District and its residents. We are filing this lawsuit now to protect Washington, D.C.’s unique interests and critical role in safeguarding the beauty and safety of our nation’s capital.”
Earlier this year, the National Capital Planning Commission, led by Trump appointees, approved preliminary plans for the arch as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to reshape Washington in his own image during his term in office.
The commission is scheduled to vote Nov. 5 on final plans for the arch.
“The Arch within the Memorial Circle will become one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but around the world,” White House spokesman David Ingle told NBC News in a statement Saturday. “It will serve as a gateway to Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, families of the fallen and all Americans, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices made by so many American heroes throughout our 250-year history so that we can enjoy freedom today.”
Ingler did not answer direct questions from NBC News about the lawsuit filed Saturday.
Renderings obtained by NBC News in April show the arch will be engraved with a winged eagle, the Statue of Liberty and a line from the Pledge of Allegiance.
In September, the president told Truth Social that the arch would also serve a national security function, as it would be equipped with “the ability to accommodate, store and rapidly employ large numbers of drones and snipers on the rooftop and plaza areas, in addition to storing large quantities of sniper munitions.”
But the final plans and renderings submitted to the NCPC did not include the military upgrades the president wrote about.
Trump has cited national security as a reason to support other construction projects that have faced legal troubles, such as the new ballroom he is building at the White House. In addition to gathering spaces for large White House events, the expansion will also create a military complex beneath the ballroom, the president said.
“When completed in the summer of 2028, the magnificent ballroom and military complex will be a matter of great pride for the entire nation,” the president wrote in an August Truth Society post after the Supreme Court allowed construction of the ballroom to proceed and rejected a legal challenge from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The president also drew the ire of locals by proposing a plan to renovate a golf course in East Potomac, Washington, despite legal obstacles to the project.
Trump explained why he supports renovating golf courses in an article published in Truth Social on Thursday.
“The East Potomac Golf Course is dangerous, dilapidated, and absolutely disgusting. Below are new photos of the poor conditions in the driving range building, including feces in the stairwells. The large holes in the driving range ‘protection’ mesh are extremely dangerous. Golf balls traveled through these holes at high speeds, striking unintended golfers — including a White House staffer who, unfortunately, suffered a violent blow to the chest,” the president wrote.
He promised to turn the course into a “world-class championship golf course.”