The preservation group challenging President Donald Trump's White House ballroom urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to leave in place a lower court order halting construction while the case moves forward.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed its response by a noon deadline set by the justices. The Trump administration asked the court Friday to lift the freeze, arguing the East Wing site is a national security project that cannot be paused.

In its filing, the trust said the administration had rushed to build as much of the ballroom as possible before the injunction takes effect and had described the project as past the point of return, according to SCOTUSblog. The administration has said the structure should be substantially finished by November.

The trust told the justices it would not oppose an expedited schedule that could bring the underlying dispute to argument in October or November.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Aug. 7 that only Congress may regulate the construction and demolition of White House structures and that no money had been approved for the ballroom. Judges Patricia Millett and Bradley Garcia wrote for the majority, upholding an order by Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Leon.

Leon's order blocked aboveground work on the ballroom but permitted underground construction, including bomb shelters and bunkers, along with any aboveground work necessary for safety and security. The order has not taken effect because the appeals court paused it to allow an appeal.

Trump ordered the East Wing demolished in October 2025 to make room for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom. He has said he raised the $400 million cost from private donors and corporations including Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Microsoft. Court records show the money passed through a nonprofit organization to the National Park Service and into an account controlled by the president that is normally used for routine White House repairs.

The case is docketed as National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation.