Washington and Virginia filed a federal lawsuit on Saturday, October 31, seeking to block President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot triumphal arch at Memorial Circle, calling the project “flagrantly unlawful” in a complaint obtained by USA Today.
Saturday’s lawsuit matters because construction could begin within days. Administration lawyers have previously said work could start as soon as November 5, after the National Capital Planning Commission considers final site and building plans that day, and the Interior Department issues a final authorising decision.
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb and Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones filed the eight-count, 46-page complaint on behalf of their jurisdictions, according to CityCast DC and Fox5 DC. The suit argues that Congress never authorised the monument, as federal law requires, and that the administration rushed or skipped required historic and environmental reviews.
“We’re filing this lawsuit now to protect DC’s unique interests and critical role in preserving the safeguards that keep our nation’s capital beautiful and safe,” Schwalb said in a statement reported by CityCast DC.
“President Trump’s illegal vanity project is an affront to this hallowed ground and the extraordinary sacrifices it represents,” Jones said in a statement.
Planners intend the concrete structure, clad in granite with two gilded eagles and a central winged figure, to stand at Memorial Circle, where Arlington Memorial Bridge and the George Washington Memorial Parkway meet in front of the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. The administration has said the arch, first pitched in October 2025, will commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary.
At 250 feet, the arch would stand nearly double the 130-foot limit set by the city’s Height Act, the lawsuit argues, and would transform the District’s physical landscape and upend its historic plan. The suit also says the project would disrupt a busy regional thoroughfare and a key emergency evacuation route.
According to the lawsuit, the National Park Service estimated that crews would need to work 20 hours a day for two to three years to complete the project. That work would require closing the southern side of the traffic circle and reducing lanes on Memorial Bridge, which carries more than 27,000 vehicles, along with 1,100 cyclists and 1,200 pedestrians, every day.
The complaint further warns that 320-foot construction cranes could pose risks to flights arriving at Reagan National Airport, noting the deadly mid-air collision above the Potomac River in January 2025. It also argues that construction would snarl traffic and pollute the Potomac River.
Administration officials have defended their authority to build the arch without fresh congressional approval, pointing to a law from the 1920s that authorised Arlington Memorial Bridge at the same location. They argue that early plans for the site included columns at the end of the bridge, an argument the plaintiffs reject as a stretch of a century-old bridge authorisation.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has separately described the arch as a “generational national defense opportunity,” arguing in a court filing that its height and central location would help counter drone threats and support homeland defence. Final plans submitted to the planning commission for its November 5 meeting, however, included no mention of the military component, according to CNN.
Saturday’s filing is not the first legal challenge to the project. Arlington County in Virginia has also sued to block it, and three Vietnam War veterans and a retired architectural historian have asked a federal judge for an emergency order halting construction. On Friday, Judge Tanya Chutkan questioned the administration’s urgency, asking its lawyer what harm would come from waiting three or four months and whether the president’s main desire was to “bedazzle the city.”
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who sits on the National Capital Planning Commission, submitted a declaration supporting the new lawsuit, saying the project has circumvented the review procedures Congress established for memorials in Washington. The commission is scheduled to review the final plans at a virtual meeting on Thursday, November 5, at 1 p.m., with public testimony scheduled.
USA Today reported that it had reached out to the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and the White House for comment on the suit. CityCast DC reported that the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday morning.
What is confirmed is the lawsuit, its core claims, and the November 5 timetable for a planning decision and a possible construction start. What is not confirmed is how the courts will treat the competing lawsuits, or whether the planning commission will approve the final plans in light of the new challenge.
