District of Columbia and Virginia sue to block Trump’s triumphal arch plans

Notably, the District of Columbia (DC) and the state of Virginia have filed a joint lawsuit to halt the construction of a sizeable triumphal arch sought by United States President Donald Trump.

Key points

• In Saturday's lawsuit, Attorneys General Brian Schwalb of Washington, DC, and Jay Jones of Virginia pointed to the project's disruptive footprint as a major concern.
• Trump's arch, nevertheless, is designed to stand 30 metres (100 feet) taller than the Statue of Liberty.
• On Friday, the administration unveiled a 106-page proposal for the arch to be a 12-storey megastructure, featuring a winged bronze statue of Lady Liberty lifting an eternal flame.
• Trump has championed the prospect of building a triumphal arch, similar to the Arc de Triomphe built in Paris during Napoleonic times.
• The new legal challenge comes on the heels of an October 8 filing by Arlington County.

Filed on Saturday, the lawsuit denounces the project as "flagrantly unlawful" and "legally indefensible".

It calls on the federal court system to bar construction before it starts.

As he has done with other controversial projects previously, otherwise, the lawsuit warns, Trump could claim that pausing construction already under way would pose a national security risk.

"This is not the first time that Defendants have rushed to dramatically remake the District too quickly for courts to intervene, " the lawsuit reads. "This Court should not allow this effort to escape judicial scrutiny."

Saturday's complaint brings the total number of lawsuits against the arch to three.

Trump's arch, nevertheless, is designed to stand 30 metres (100 feet) taller than the Statue of Liberty. It would tower from the Memorial Circle in Washington, DC, at 76 metres (250ft).

That colossal scale has prompted outrage, particularly from veterans' groups who fear the arch would block views of Arlington National Cemetery, a hallowed military grave site.

White House authorities maintain that ground could be broken as early as next week, on or around November 5.

As well as programme spaces, offices and a "fire command centre", the arch would include two mezzanines and an observation deck with panoramic east-west views.

Trump has previously remarked the arch would double as a military hub with snipers and drone capabilities.

Construction on the arch would additionally result in significant traffic changes in the area, including rerouting traffic to nearby roads.

"As soon as defendants break ground on this project, they will inflict irreparable harm on both the District and Virginia, " the lawsuit remarked.

It warns that the anticipated three-year construction project will stymie commuter traffic, slow down emergency vehicles and generate significant pollution, including "stormwater runoff into the Potomac".

Notably, the lawsuit calls on the court to force the Trump administration to obtain congressional authorisation before any construction can commence.

Meanwhile, the new legal challenge comes on the heels of an October 8 filing by Arlington County. It was the first governmental body to mount a legal action against Trump's planned monument.

In that lawsuit, the county's governing board argued that the project would cause "significant harm" to its residents and probable require changes to nearby flight paths.

When a group of Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian introduced an effort to stop the arch, the first complaint came in February.

District Judge Tanya Chutkan is overseeing that case, and she is weighing whether to matter a preliminary injunction to temporarily freeze any construction aims while the court hears arguments.

At a hearing on Friday, Chutkan deferred an immediate ruling but signalled that she would be issuing a decision expeditiously.

She previously ordered the administration to offer the court 48 hours' notice before undertaking any activities related to the construction of the arch.

In practice, the monument has already received early approval from the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were all tapped by Trump.

For now, district of Columbia and Virginia sue to block Trump's triumphal arch plans remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.