Arlington County sues to block Trump's planned Triumphal Arch at Memorial Circle

The Arlington County Board in Virginia filed a lawsuit on Thursday opposing construction of the Triumphal Arch, President Donald Trump's planned monument, the Associated Press reported, saying the board is the first governmental body to take legal action against it. The suit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. According to The Hill, it names the Department of the Interior and its Secretary Doug Burgum, along with the National Park Service and its acting director Jessica Bowron, as defendants. [ 1 , 2 , 5 , 6 ]

The lawsuit criticised the speed at which the project slated for Memorial Circle has moved without going through the full review process. "The National Park Service, the agency responsible for projects on national park land such as Memorial Circle, is proceeding full-speed toward ground-disturbing construction," it said, adding that although the agency has claimed a final decision has not yet been made, "that rushed process appears to be a pretext designed to shore up justifications for building the Arch in accordance with the President's repeated marching orders." The suit asks that "the agency's feverish pace toward construction of the arch" be halted so that the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act are followed and proper analysis and testing are done. [ 1 , 2 , 6 ]

The Hill reported that the complaint against the proposed 250-foot arch cites concerns about its impact on tourism and on the safety of local residents. Attorneys for the county wrote that "using the Arch to store large stockpiles of ammunition and as a staging point for drones and snipers, so close to commuters and tourists, will dramatically worsen these public-safety harms and the risk of accidents." They also wrote that the arch would "directly obstruct the line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery" and that the county's 245,000 residents would be "harmed by increased traffic" near the site. [ 5 ]

"The Arlington County Board has filed this lawsuit because our community has the most to lose from this egregious and unlawful proposed project," Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said in a statement. He said the county had acted in good faith in the review process, pointing out "severe, unique, and wide-ranging negative impacts" only to see them ignored. The county is represented by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, whose president and CEO Skye Perryman said, "we don't need vanity projects. This project will do significant harm to the people of Arlington County." The White House and Interior Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the AP said. [ 1 , 2 , 5 , 6 ]

Memorial Circle sits on federal parkland west of the Potomac River across the Memorial Bridge and immediately adjacent to Arlington County. The New York Times noted that the county is home to Arlington National Cemetery, which it described as central to the legal battle, and that a model of the arch was displayed at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in June. [ 1 , 2 , 4 , 6 ]

The Hill reported that the project was approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in April, and that the National Park Service backed the proposed location earlier this fall while finding the monument would have "adverse effects" on several historic sites. It added that a group of Vietnam War veterans sued in September for an emergency court order to block the project from breaking ground, after also suing in February over the arch's location. [ 5 ]