Judge Limits Construction of White House Ballroom to ‘Below-Ground’

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote that construction for national security facilities and to protect the president and the White House may continue.

Architect Shalom Baranes shows a site plan for a new $400 million White House ballroom during a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission in Washington on Jan. 8, 2026. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A federal judge ordered on April 16 that construction of the White House ballroom be limited to underground.

In a 10-page opinion, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that “below-ground construction” for national security facilities and to protect the president and the White House may continue, while “above-ground construction of the planned ballroom” must be stopped.