Three Vietnam War veterans asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday to stop President Trump's 250-foot arch from breaking ground, because the arch still has no final approval to build, NPR reported. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had announced two days earlier that excavation at Memorial Circle would start "over the next two-week period." The one approval the arch cannot rise without — a final vote by the National Capital Planning Commission — does not exist yet. The commission next meets in October.
The veterans, joined by an architectural historian and represented by the nonprofit Public Citizen, filed an emergency request in their existing lawsuit asking for a 14-day restraining order. They want the administration barred "from taking any steps to construct or to direct or facilitate construction of any structure" on Memorial Circle, the traffic circle between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, per NPR. Their lawyers told the court the administration is racing to make the arch a "fait accompli," the Washington Post reported. The same plaintiffs sued in February, arguing the arch would sever the sightline from the Lincoln Memorial across the river to Arlington's graves — the view the circle was built to frame.
Chutkan answered late Friday evening. She ordered the administration to give 48 hours' notice before doing anything at Memorial Circle beyond gathering information on-site about archaeological resources — stacked on an existing order requiring two weeks' notice before any construction or demolition, NPR reported.
